← all facts
perception
You are physically unable to see what you ignore.
In a 1999 study, roughly half of the people watching a video of people passing a ball failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene.
Approximately 50% of participants did not notice the stimulus, rather than the entire group.
You are not seeing the world; you are seeing what you expect.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Simons and Chabris, 1999
- What the check found
- The phenomenon of inattentional blindness is well-supported, but the supporting text exaggerates the failure rate of the specific study cited.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.