Final answer:
Perception can change through cultural influences, such as different visual experiences effecting susceptibility to illusions, and personal experiences, including internalized biases that affect interpretations of stimuli like identifying threats.
Step-by-step explanation:
An individual's perception can change in various ways. One way is through cultural influences, where the environment and the cultural context a person is exposed to affect the way they interpret sensory information. For example, people from Western cultures, used to a 'carpentered world' of straight lines, are more susceptible to visual illusions like the Müller-Lyer illusion, compared to individuals from non-Western cultures. Conversely, in non-Western cultures like the Zulu of South Africa, where round huts are prevalent, such illusions have less of an effect.
Another factor influencing perception is personal experience, which includes individual histories and interactions with the environment. This can be demonstrated in research related to implicit racial bias, where stereotypes and prejudices that individuals harbor, sometimes unconsciously, can influence how quickly they associate weapons with certain racial groups or how they react in simulated threatening situations. This indicates that perceptions are not fixed but are shaped by personal experiences that include exposure to and internalization of societal attitudes and biases.