Chabris And Simon's The Invisible Gorilla

In reading "Mistakes were Made but Not by me," multiple accounts are given of traits exhibited by humans that are displayed subconsciously. The authors, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, begin by defining these traits and give readers the actual terminology to these characteristics. With various examples being provided to the reading audience they are then able to make a clear correlation between the behaviors displayed and how they may impact not only themselves but others around them. "Mistakes were Made but Not by me" has a theme which is centralized around the two key facets which are cognitive dissonance and self- justification.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell. This book introduces the concept of “thin slicing”. The concept refers to how in a split second or blink of an eye people can make an unconscious and accurate assessment of someone. Using the concept of thin slicing we can determine what is really important within the first few seconds when meeting someone. Malcolm Gladwell explained that first impressions or spontaneous decisions can be just as important as decisions that are made carefully and planned out. According to Gladwell, people make better decisions with quick judgments than they do with a lot of analysis. Gladwell believes that the power

challenged and critically analyzed to point out certain cognitions that benefit those who are not

In the most famous experiment, the invisible gorilla, showed how oblivious we can be. To start off, people were asked to count how many passes between the players in white shirts had, ignoring the players in the black shirts. For half of the participants, a giant gorilla walked onto the court without anyone noticing. A monstrous, distinct gorilla was gone unnoticed because it was not expected or focused on. This experiment proves to us as readers that our minds put us in situations

The human mind is vast and intricate, yet responsive. Everyone has their own special abilities and talents. Eidetic memory, artistic brilliance, and mathematical mastery are all special skills possessed by very few, but the one that Gladwell glorifies in his non-fiction story, “Blink”, is the power of thinking without thinking. He discusses how certain people’s subconscious mind has the capacity to respond to complex dilemmas and situations in less than two seconds. Similar to talents such as photographic memory and musical mastery, Gladwell states that the adaptive unconscious can be strengthened and improved.

In one experiment, involving various bad smells, it was noted that the participants that had been exposed to a mild-stink or strong-stink smell were more severe in their moral judgements than participants exposed to no bad smell. In all four experiments, the same results were obtained, participants that felt disgust were likely to be more severe in their judgments. This paper concludes that participants who believe in their intuitions were often tricked by outside forces, such as a bad smell. Noting this phenomenon, the paper suggests that self-awareness of these outside factors can help mitigate their effect. However, they also suggest it is not wise to completely remove somatic markers. In one study, the patients were not able to incorporate feelings and sensations into their decision making; as a result, the patients were unable to come to conclusions on any simple subject matter. The paper concludes that it is ok to rely on these intuitions even if they can be easily influenced, but it also says we must be aware of factors that can distort our intuitions. By following this methodology, one can mitigate making biased decisions due to his or her

In his first book, Drunk Tank Pink, Adam Alter examines the forces that shape our thoughts and behaviors. Although we may like to believe that we are in full control of our actions, Alter contends that there exist a host of internal and external factors that subconsciously affect our decisions. He separates the book into three main sections: the world within us, the world between us, and the world around us. In each of these sections, he explores three specific factors that subconsciously influence our thoughts and behaviors. By presenting numerous examples throughout the book, he illustrates the striking effect these factors can have, leaving us to think about the underlying implications and uses for this knowledge.

Is our justice system fair? Is our justice system truly set out to do what it was meant to do? Or are there social factors and memory errors that come into play that can change a conviction outcome. In today’s court rooms we have, Defense attorneys, Prosecutors, judges, juries, evidence, forensics experts, witness testimonies, and of course the human memory. What better type of evidence than the human memory, right? Unfortunately, human memory is subject to the power of suggestion and unable to truly recall an event when told to recall. In other words, the story may not be the same as the one that actually happened the day of that event because many variables come into play like cross examinations and the way a question can be asked can alter the answer or how the event was perceived. The main focus of this paper is to see how the human brain is not able to effectively recall events which could possibly convict an innocent person of wrong doing. Also how lawyers use the misinformation effect to their advantage. In order to understand how something as simple as a question can decide a person’s faith we must first answer some questions. First, How does memory actually work and how is memory retrieved when your need to answer a question or being cross examined? Second, how does the misinformation effect play a role when a witness needs to testify against the defense or vice versa? Third, how can structuring a word or sentence effect the outcome of a conviction?

Also, his aim which is to give a complete theory of human nature is way over-ambitious. Yet, this can be argued that cognitive psychology has identified unconscious processes, like our memory (Tulving, 1972), processing information (Bargh &Chartrand, 1999), and social psychology has shown the significance of implicit processing (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). These findings have confirmed unconscious processes in human behaviour.

In Seth Borenstein’s article about non-human primates, he discusses how humans and apes are similar. Likewise, the author states that it appears that apes have the skill sets to walk in someone else’s shoes, just as humans can. The author ties in a study that was conducted on select great apes to see if they shared this trait with humans known as the “theory of the mind.” Borenstien points out the study focuses on the idea of false beliefs and how these primates react to this information. He continues by expressing that previously, the great apes were thought to be unable to understand this concept that human toddlers could, but according to recent research involving primates and clips of King Kong, these apes are capable of understanding that what is happening is not true. An expert, Kano, from the University of Kyoto commented on the study and remarked that while this is a big step, it does not imply full complex understanding. However, Borenstien insists that this is very important because previous studies were unsuccessful and this expresses complex cognition among non-human primates. On the other hand, the author includes the facts that the sample size for this

In one of the most famous cases of questionable doubt, and questionable information, Civil War General George McClellan refrained from chasing and attacking the vulnerable Confederate army as he was doubtful of his army’s abilities. This doubt was not born out of McClellan’s own observations, which would clearly show his army’s superior training and size, but instead on trusting the man in charge of “intelligence reports” who overestimated the size of the enemy by a factor of 2 or more. This doubt led to a major setback for the Union Army as the weak Confederate army was able to regroup and reset. In a similar way, a former Union General, George Custer, famous for his overconfidence, used outdated intelligence reports that instead underestimated the size of his enemy. Custer’s certainty that he would be victorious led to disaster as he led his soldier into an ambush where the enemy’s size ended up being much higher than anticipated. Even though one leader was doubtful and the other was certain, both failed tremendously at their task, showing that certainty and doubt are in fact not very different at all. Certitude is a spectrum that includes both complete certainty and complete doubt, and no level of certitude is always better than another. Instead, the decision of certainty or doubt should be reached through a careful

David Dunning’s mastery of the art of persuasive writing is clear in his essay “We Are All Confident Idiots.” He proposes that wisdom is inherently different from knowledge, and the more we think we know, the less we actually do. His argument is clear and driven, and backed up with examples and insurmountable evidence. His use of diction and tone amount to a sophisticated and reliable case for his claim: those with the most confidence in their ability possess the least actual skill.

Chapter 7 Summary: The Imagined … This chapter is about how we are intensely affected by what others think. For instance, we think a motion picture to be commendable on the off chance that others does. The contemplations of others can be an astounding wellspring of data. All things considered, if a great many people believe something to be true or false, they are typically right.

Saul Kassin, a professor of psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, conducted an experiment relating to self-justification within interrogators. In the experiment, Kassin paired individuals who were either guilty or innocent of theft with interrogators who were told as well if a person was innocent or guilty of theft. The combination of a person thinking they are innocent and the interrogator thinking they guilty, resulted in the most amount of tension between both parties. Kassin’s experiment is a classic example of how self-justification can take over a person’s mind. Once a person takes one step down the pyramid of choice, it is harder for them to see the other side, this is exactly what happened in the experiment. Keise Izuma, another professor of psychology, conducted a similar experiment outside of the criminal justice system. Izuma had 52 participants choose their favorite wallpaper out of 2 selections. Izuma would then have an homes interior expert enter the experiment room and either tell the participants they made a good decision choosing the wallpaper, or if they had made a horrible decision. The expert either praised or scolded the participant for ten minutes. 8/10 of the participants that were scolded switched which wallpaper

There are many facts that are unknown about the mind. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand how it works. We have learned that the mind has a number of different levels of processing. Before Sigmund Freud “nearly all the previous research and theorizing of psychologists had dealt with conscious, such as perception, memory, judgment, and learning“ (Hunt185). Freud brought forth a number of theories that dealt with “the unconscious and its crucial role in human behavior”(Hunt 185). The unconscious is a storage area for information that is not being used. It is also the home of “powerful primitive drives and forbidden wishes that constantly generated pressure on the conscious mind”(Hunt