In the field of social judgment theory, a key concept emerges: assimilation. This refers to the tendency to perceive a new element as being more in line with our initial beliefs than it actually is. In practice, introducing a neutral element close to our beliefs can lead to an expansion of those beliefs to incorporate this new element. Ingrid Poncin and Rik Pieters illustrate this idea by describing an attitude as a spectrum of evaluations, mixing acceptable, unacceptable, and indifferent positions. Assimilation and contrast, for their part, represent cognitive distortions, perceptual biases linked to our propensity to interpret events according to our frame of reference and the context in which they occur.

Assimilation manifests itself as a reduction in the perceived distinction between two stimuli, the first serving as an anchor for the second. This mechanism leads to the perception of stimuli as being more similar than they actually are. These perceptual distortion processes play a crucial role in how we interpret and evaluate the information we receive, thus influencing our judgments and decision-making. A concrete example of this phenomenon can be seen in the Panorama Hair advertisement, which vividly illustrates how our perceptions can be influenced by external factors.