The Invisible Gorilla
"The Invisible Gorilla" is a psychological concept that illustrates how people can miss obvious details in their environment when focused on a specific task. This phenomenon was popularized by a famous experiment conducted by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, where participants were asked to count the number of basketball passes made by players in white shirts. Many viewers failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene.
The experiment highlights the limitations of human attention and perception, demonstrating that our focus can lead us to overlook significant information. This concept has implications for various fields, including cognitive psychology, education, and advertising, emphasizing the importance of awareness in decision-making and observation.