What are some examples of psychological studies demonstrating how people are less perceptive than they believe?
August 1, 2008 8:22 AM Subscribe
What are some examples of psychological studies demonstrating how people are less perceptive than they believe?
I'm working on a story on the subject.
The idea is people are not nearly as perceptive as they believe, and tend to create false narratives and explanations without realizing it.
A good example is a study where a researcher shows a subject two photos of different faces. The subject is asked which one they prefer. At some point, the researcher does some sleight of hand and presents a photo the subject said they did not prefer. The researcher then asks why they preferred it over the other (the one they actually said they liked more), and then the subject goes on to explain why.
Another study I vaguely remember involved convincing people they had visited a theme park they hadn't actually stepped foot in.
Yet another involved interviewing subjects, then distracting the subject for a moment, swiftly replacing the interviewer, and checking to see if the subject noticed - which they often did not.
The common thread here is people will often explain their decisions or observations to others and themselves even when they have no idea why, or if, they made those decisions or observations.
Examples and links to journals, videos, blogs, etc. are greatly appreciated.
I'm working on a story on the subject.
The idea is people are not nearly as perceptive as they believe, and tend to create false narratives and explanations without realizing it.
A good example is a study where a researcher shows a subject two photos of different faces. The subject is asked which one they prefer. At some point, the researcher does some sleight of hand and presents a photo the subject said they did not prefer. The researcher then asks why they preferred it over the other (the one they actually said they liked more), and then the subject goes on to explain why.
Another study I vaguely remember involved convincing people they had visited a theme park they hadn't actually stepped foot in.
Yet another involved interviewing subjects, then distracting the subject for a moment, swiftly replacing the interviewer, and checking to see if the subject noticed - which they often did not.
The common thread here is people will often explain their decisions or observations to others and themselves even when they have no idea why, or if, they made those decisions or observations.
Examples and links to journals, videos, blogs, etc. are greatly appreciated.
try looking up the phenomena of false memories. also, there have been plenty of research into the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.
posted by buka at 8:33 AM on August 1, 2008
posted by buka at 8:33 AM on August 1, 2008
Watch this video. Your task is to count the number of times the people in white pass a ball. Do not count passes made by the people in black.
Then, go here for interpretation of your results. Don't read before viewing the video, as it will ruin the experience.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:37 AM on August 1, 2008 [3 favorites]
Then, go here for interpretation of your results. Don't read before viewing the video, as it will ruin the experience.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:37 AM on August 1, 2008 [3 favorites]
Eye witness research is a great example of the process of implanted memory. Here's a beginning link
posted by hworth at 9:20 AM on August 1, 2008
posted by hworth at 9:20 AM on August 1, 2008
Following on from buka, Loftus and Palmer's classic 'broken glass' experiment.
posted by ashaw at 9:21 AM on August 1, 2008
posted by ashaw at 9:21 AM on August 1, 2008
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments (PDF)
posted by scalefree at 9:24 AM on August 1, 2008
posted by scalefree at 9:24 AM on August 1, 2008
In believe it's in the documentary, What the Bleep Do We Know?, where they mention that Native Americans could not see the first of Columbus's ships anchored on the horizon because they could not cognitively comprehend their existence. It was not until a shaman carefully explained it that the ships actually appeared.
Whether or not you believe that, well, that's up to you. But I, for one, do think there's probably a lot of stuff happening right in front of us that we don't see because we don't believe it can be happening.
posted by BirdD0g at 9:24 AM on August 1, 2008
Whether or not you believe that, well, that's up to you. But I, for one, do think there's probably a lot of stuff happening right in front of us that we don't see because we don't believe it can be happening.
posted by BirdD0g at 9:24 AM on August 1, 2008
Best answer: Elizabeth Loftus is an expert in this area. I'm pretty sure she did a study where she planted false memories into test subjects, convincing them that they had been lost in a shopping mall as a child. She has done other similar experiments as well, and is kind of a "celebrity" with respect eyewitness testimony and the like.
posted by Shebear at 9:31 AM on August 1, 2008
posted by Shebear at 9:31 AM on August 1, 2008
This is a brilliant trick, by a guy who actually wrote a book called Quirkology that's about this kind of stuff (it also contains two examples of your theme And here's Derren Brown doing the interviewer switcheroo.
Also, I read an article the other day discussing how people are bad at spotting the absence of things. For instance, you present people with a series of three-letter strings (XJF, DMN, etc...) and tell them that some are special, others aren't, and they have to work out why that is. People are very quick to work out the pattern if all the "special" strings have the letter "T" in them. But it takes them many, many more strings to work it out if the reason a string is special is because it doesn't have the letter T. Apparently it's also the case that while you can easily train a pigeon to peck a button that lights up in exchange for some bird seed, it's almost impossible to train them to peck the button that doesn't light up. Sorry I can't find a link though!
There are counter-examples of this idea that we are less perceptive than we realise - if you deal cards in a logical but hard to identify order, and ask the subject to guess what the next card will be, they'll often start guessing accurately before they can explain what the actual pattern is. This sort of "good" subconscious phenomenon is discussed in Blink.
posted by so_necessary at 12:06 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
Also, I read an article the other day discussing how people are bad at spotting the absence of things. For instance, you present people with a series of three-letter strings (XJF, DMN, etc...) and tell them that some are special, others aren't, and they have to work out why that is. People are very quick to work out the pattern if all the "special" strings have the letter "T" in them. But it takes them many, many more strings to work it out if the reason a string is special is because it doesn't have the letter T. Apparently it's also the case that while you can easily train a pigeon to peck a button that lights up in exchange for some bird seed, it's almost impossible to train them to peck the button that doesn't light up. Sorry I can't find a link though!
There are counter-examples of this idea that we are less perceptive than we realise - if you deal cards in a logical but hard to identify order, and ask the subject to guess what the next card will be, they'll often start guessing accurately before they can explain what the actual pattern is. This sort of "good" subconscious phenomenon is discussed in Blink.
posted by so_necessary at 12:06 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]
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posted by chndrcks at 8:33 AM on August 1, 2008