The experience of the invisible gorilla has become a classic of psychology, although it was realized in 1999, is still cited as a typical example of the limits of perception, and demonstrates people’s resistance to accepting that they are often blind to the world around them. Them.
The creators of the Invisible Gorilla Experiment, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, did not imagine that this exercise would become such a curious and repeated experience, that it has been reproduced many times, in different countries and between people of all ages and levels of education. and has achieved similar results.
- If you want to experience it.
- Watch the video below and follow the instructions.
- Yes.
- Before you start reading the next point.
It only counts the number of passes the white jersey team makes between them. You should be vigilant and consider air and rebound passes. Take the test and read on.
“Few observations and many theories lead to error, too many observations and few theories lead to truth?Alexis Carrel?”
In the third paragraph of this article, we provided the same instructions Chabris and Simons gave to a group of volunteer students before experiencing it.
When participants finished watching the video, they were asked the following questions (answer them yourself if you’ve watched the video):
The last question is the one that surprised the volunteers the most in the invisible gorilla experience, at least 58% of them. As the experiment repeats, the percentage of surprises is more or less the same. Yes: there was a gorilla in the video, but more than half of the people didn’t notice. Did you see him?
The first time the invisible gorilla experiment was conducted, and in all subsequent experiments, most of those who participated and did not notice the gorilla’s presence were disbelievers. It seemed impossible for them to have ignored this little “detail. “
When they saw the video again, they all captured the gorilla’s presence. Some people think two different videos have been released, but that’s not true. This experiment won the Ig Nobel. Il is an award given to scientific activities that “first make people laugh and then think. “
Why are so many people blinded by such an obvious stimulus of this magnitude, that is the question that arises after this experience. Moreover, of course, it is striking that many refuse to accept that their perception deceives them, believe they see reality as it is, and yet they are wrong.
Years later, researchers Steve Most and Robert Astur conducted a similar experiment, in this case a driving simulator was used, volunteers were ordered to brake when they reached a corner and saw a blue arrow; if they saw a yellow arrow, they didn’t. I have to stop.
However, when the volunteers were doing this activity, two motorcycles passed them in the simulator, when the blue bike passed, the virtual riders noticed it and braked, on the other hand, when the yellow bike passed almost 60% hit the motorcyclist. One way or another, the results of the invisible gorilla experiment were reproduced.
What happens in these cases is that people focus their attention only on the point they’re interested in. In the first case, the white computer passes; then, in the second experiment, on the blue arrow. Actually, they focused all their attention on color. Because the gorilla was black and some bikes were yellow, the volunteers did not see the stimulus.
All because some people can focus on one variable at a time, while others have a broader and more flexible care model, so it is advisable not to talk on the phone while driving for example.