Invisible Gorilla Study

Have you taken the Invisible Gorilla test?

“Pay attention!” is an adage we’re used to from our homes to our workplaces. But are there perils of paying too much attention?

Intense focusing could blind us even to stimuli that normally attract attention. Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons made the most dramatic demonstration of the same in their book The Invisible Gorilla.

They created a short film about two teams passing basketballs.

One team was wearing white shirts, the other wearing black. The viewers of the film are instructed to count the number of passes made by the white team alone.

*Spoiler alert if you plan to take the video*
Halfway through the video, a woman wearing a gorilla suit appears. The gorilla is in view for 9 seconds.

The study revealed that nearly half of the viewers who were engrossed in counting the passes did not notice the gorilla.

Infact when the study results were revealed to the viewers who had failed to see the gorilla – they were surprised. They couldn’t believe they had missed such a striking event.

Two learnings from the Invisible Gorilla study:
·        We can be blind to the obvious
·        We can also be blind to our own blindness.