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Salute, for those who like to break someone else's account, today we will talk about the blindness of inattention or the effect of the invisible gorilla.
Often a person cannot see objects or stimuli that arise unexpectedly, although they are very noticeable. And it's okay if you don't notice the appearance of a gorilla on the video or if you are cleverly guided by an illusionist during his speech, but this effect can also cause an accident. This technique is also very often used by robbers, scammers and the media for the purpose of manipulation. In this article, you will learn what the gorilla effect is, what causes it, and how to minimize its negative impact on you.
Inattention blindness (also "invisible gorilla effect", selective attention or perceptual blindness) is the psychological inability to pay attention to an object that is not related to vision problems and is purely psychological in nature. The phenomenon can also be defined as the inability of an individual to see a stimulus that suddenly appears in the field of vision.
When you observe something, your consciousness analyzes only a small part of what is happening, and "completes" the rest of the picture on its own. Because of this, when you are focused on a specific object, everything that happens around you is not perceived by you, although it is in sight. Another reason is the overload of the brain with sensations. We cannot observe all the details like a video camera, something is inevitably overlooked and not perceived. For a better understanding of this psychological effect, it is worth familiarizing yourself with a fairly well-known and no less popular experiment, which served to discover the blindness of inattention.
How was the effect discovered?
In 1975, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chaprice conducted a series of experiments, one of which gave the second name to this psychological phenomenon - the "invisible gorilla effect." The essence was as follows: there were two teams of players in black and white shirts, throwing a basketball to each other; the spectators were asked to count the number of throws made by one of the teams. Somewhere in the middle of the experiment, a man in a gorilla suit appeared on the field. He was near the players and was in the field of view of the participants in the experiment. After completing the experiment, the respondents were asked if they noticed anything unusual during the experiment. And half of the participants answered no!
Due to overemphasis on counting the throws, they were unable to see the person in the gorilla suit, even though they were looking directly at him. Based on this and other cases of manifestation of the phenomenon, Arienne Mark and Irwin Rock in 1992 coined the term inattention blindness (perceptual blindness). The term gave the name to their common book ("Inattentional Blindness"), which provides examples of the manifestation of this psychological phenomenon and analyzes the experimental base (it also includes the centuries-old experience of illusionists who often use this effect).
I will give one example of the manifestation of inattention blindness from the book of Sharby. The respondents were the most experienced pilots, who had thousands of flight hours on the Boeing-727 behind them. They were trained in a relatively new for that time technology of a projector on the windshield (all the necessary data for landing was displayed on the glass, and not somewhere below or on the side). They trained to land a simulated Boeing with new technology. When they learned how to do this, the task was made more difficult for them: a jet plane was on the runway. And yes, distracted by indicators of altitude, angle, speed, etc. the pilots did not notice him.
Here is what Sharby writes about this:
“The most amazing thing about the flight simulator experiment is that the windshield projector was supposed to keep the pilots' attention where the plane was parked,” or so our intuition tells us. They never took their eyes off the strip to look at the readings. However, in Haynes's experiment with a flight simulator, two pilots who used a projector on the windshield would have crashed directly into the plane on the runway if the experimenter had not interrupted the test in time. The plane was perfectly visible just a few seconds after the pilots passed the cloud cover, and in more than seven seconds they could safely interrupt the landing ... ”.
There is an effect akin to inattention blindness, when a person can select a specific sound from the general noise. For example, we are able to concentrate on the voice of the interlocutor when loud music is playing around, and when the need for this disappears, we stop listening, and his voice will merge with the rest of the noise. Have you ever had this, then you are watching an interesting film or program and not the first time you hear how they turn to you?
In the case of the invisible gorilla effect, things are more complicated. We do not realize that some of the objects we look at are not perceived by us. The participants in the experiment of Simons and Chapris, who did not see anything unusual during the course of the experiment, refused to believe that a man in a gorilla suit was jumping and waving his arms in front of them, but they looked at him and did not see him. Indeed, how to believe such a thing?
But knowing that this effect exists is the first step towards minimizing its impact.
How to reduce the impact of inattention blindness?
Know how the effect manifests itself and how it is caused
In order to avoid inattention blindness, avoid extreme concentration on one object. For example, while driving a car, avoid talking with passengers, and even more so, avoid talking on the phone, try to be distracted by the dashboard or the radio as little as possible while driving. Yes, light conversation will not make you "blind", but if you immerse yourself in thoughts or memories, if you start to engage in some extraneous action while driving, it is fraught with missing something from your field of vision.
Analysis and awareness
Analyze the situation and try to determine if you are distracted by minor details that prevent you from noticing something important? Do not give in to the manipulator, do not let him control your field of vision. Constantly ask yourself questions: "Are they distracting me from something important?" Train yourself to switch attention in order to have a more holistic and detailed picture, leave as little as possible to “finish drawing with consciousness”.
Avoid the secondary
Train yourself to highlight the main thing and pay attention to it. Something you still will not notice, it is impossible to completely avoid the blindness of inattention. Make sure that you pay attention to the main things first, and not be distracted by trifles. It will also help you not to miss an important aspect that you might be forced to forget about. Do not allow yourself to focus on something secondary - lose sight of the main thing.
Inattention blindness is actively used by magicians and illusionists. They skillfully distract you on some little things, and you do not notice some of their actions. Unsurprisingly, the more times the illusionists repeat their trick, the more people guess what the trick is. Because next time they turn their attention to something else, not what they were forced to look at the first time.
Now you are familiar with the psychological phenomenon of inattention blindness or the "invisible gorilla effect" and its impact on your life will be less significant. Beware of manipulation, do not let yourself be distracted from the main thing and be careful.
Often a person cannot see objects or stimuli that arise unexpectedly, although they are very noticeable. And it's okay if you don't notice the appearance of a gorilla on the video or if you are cleverly guided by an illusionist during his speech, but this effect can also cause an accident. This technique is also very often used by robbers, scammers and the media for the purpose of manipulation. In this article, you will learn what the gorilla effect is, what causes it, and how to minimize its negative impact on you.
Inattention blindness (also "invisible gorilla effect", selective attention or perceptual blindness) is the psychological inability to pay attention to an object that is not related to vision problems and is purely psychological in nature. The phenomenon can also be defined as the inability of an individual to see a stimulus that suddenly appears in the field of vision.
When you observe something, your consciousness analyzes only a small part of what is happening, and "completes" the rest of the picture on its own. Because of this, when you are focused on a specific object, everything that happens around you is not perceived by you, although it is in sight. Another reason is the overload of the brain with sensations. We cannot observe all the details like a video camera, something is inevitably overlooked and not perceived. For a better understanding of this psychological effect, it is worth familiarizing yourself with a fairly well-known and no less popular experiment, which served to discover the blindness of inattention.
How was the effect discovered?
In 1975, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chaprice conducted a series of experiments, one of which gave the second name to this psychological phenomenon - the "invisible gorilla effect." The essence was as follows: there were two teams of players in black and white shirts, throwing a basketball to each other; the spectators were asked to count the number of throws made by one of the teams. Somewhere in the middle of the experiment, a man in a gorilla suit appeared on the field. He was near the players and was in the field of view of the participants in the experiment. After completing the experiment, the respondents were asked if they noticed anything unusual during the experiment. And half of the participants answered no!
Due to overemphasis on counting the throws, they were unable to see the person in the gorilla suit, even though they were looking directly at him. Based on this and other cases of manifestation of the phenomenon, Arienne Mark and Irwin Rock in 1992 coined the term inattention blindness (perceptual blindness). The term gave the name to their common book ("Inattentional Blindness"), which provides examples of the manifestation of this psychological phenomenon and analyzes the experimental base (it also includes the centuries-old experience of illusionists who often use this effect).
I will give one example of the manifestation of inattention blindness from the book of Sharby. The respondents were the most experienced pilots, who had thousands of flight hours on the Boeing-727 behind them. They were trained in a relatively new for that time technology of a projector on the windshield (all the necessary data for landing was displayed on the glass, and not somewhere below or on the side). They trained to land a simulated Boeing with new technology. When they learned how to do this, the task was made more difficult for them: a jet plane was on the runway. And yes, distracted by indicators of altitude, angle, speed, etc. the pilots did not notice him.
Here is what Sharby writes about this:
“The most amazing thing about the flight simulator experiment is that the windshield projector was supposed to keep the pilots' attention where the plane was parked,” or so our intuition tells us. They never took their eyes off the strip to look at the readings. However, in Haynes's experiment with a flight simulator, two pilots who used a projector on the windshield would have crashed directly into the plane on the runway if the experimenter had not interrupted the test in time. The plane was perfectly visible just a few seconds after the pilots passed the cloud cover, and in more than seven seconds they could safely interrupt the landing ... ”.
There is an effect akin to inattention blindness, when a person can select a specific sound from the general noise. For example, we are able to concentrate on the voice of the interlocutor when loud music is playing around, and when the need for this disappears, we stop listening, and his voice will merge with the rest of the noise. Have you ever had this, then you are watching an interesting film or program and not the first time you hear how they turn to you?
In the case of the invisible gorilla effect, things are more complicated. We do not realize that some of the objects we look at are not perceived by us. The participants in the experiment of Simons and Chapris, who did not see anything unusual during the course of the experiment, refused to believe that a man in a gorilla suit was jumping and waving his arms in front of them, but they looked at him and did not see him. Indeed, how to believe such a thing?
But knowing that this effect exists is the first step towards minimizing its impact.
How to reduce the impact of inattention blindness?
Know how the effect manifests itself and how it is caused
In order to avoid inattention blindness, avoid extreme concentration on one object. For example, while driving a car, avoid talking with passengers, and even more so, avoid talking on the phone, try to be distracted by the dashboard or the radio as little as possible while driving. Yes, light conversation will not make you "blind", but if you immerse yourself in thoughts or memories, if you start to engage in some extraneous action while driving, it is fraught with missing something from your field of vision.
Analysis and awareness
Analyze the situation and try to determine if you are distracted by minor details that prevent you from noticing something important? Do not give in to the manipulator, do not let him control your field of vision. Constantly ask yourself questions: "Are they distracting me from something important?" Train yourself to switch attention in order to have a more holistic and detailed picture, leave as little as possible to “finish drawing with consciousness”.
Avoid the secondary
Train yourself to highlight the main thing and pay attention to it. Something you still will not notice, it is impossible to completely avoid the blindness of inattention. Make sure that you pay attention to the main things first, and not be distracted by trifles. It will also help you not to miss an important aspect that you might be forced to forget about. Do not allow yourself to focus on something secondary - lose sight of the main thing.
Inattention blindness is actively used by magicians and illusionists. They skillfully distract you on some little things, and you do not notice some of their actions. Unsurprisingly, the more times the illusionists repeat their trick, the more people guess what the trick is. Because next time they turn their attention to something else, not what they were forced to look at the first time.
Now you are familiar with the psychological phenomenon of inattention blindness or the "invisible gorilla effect" and its impact on your life will be less significant. Beware of manipulation, do not let yourself be distracted from the main thing and be careful.
