Oddly Wired
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perception

You perceive objects as closer when you want them.

Your level of desire for a physical object influences your visual perception of how close it is to you.

Research indicates that when people are thirsty, they visually estimate water sources as being physically nearer than they actually are. Your motivation acts as a telescope for your environment.

What you want changes what you see.

Where this comes from

Study
Balcetis and Dunning (2010), Wishful Seeing
What the check found
The citation and claim align with the published 2010 study. However, the robustness of this finding is a subject of ongoing debate within psychological science due to replication challenges in the field.
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.