Oddly Wired
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attention

You miss what is right in front of you.

In the 1999 Simons and Chabris study, approximately 46% of observers failed to notice an opaque gorilla, though this percentage varied by experimental condition.

Change 'half' to 'nearly half' and specify that the rate varies by task condition.

You do not see the world as it is; you see it as you attend to it.

Where this comes from

Study
Simons and Chabris, 1999, Perception
What the check found
The statement overgeneralizes the results of a specific experiment. The rate of inattentional blindness depends heavily on the complexity of the task and the visual properties of the unexpected object.
Confidence
Solid, with limits
attentionperceptioninattentional blindness

Related

One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.