I just read up on this concept in my Psych textbook and decided to find an entertaining video demonstration; then, you got me right at the beginning of it! Did not see that coming.
I have been a professional hypnotist for over 23 years. The phenomena discussed here are real. What the researchers do not seem to account for, however, is the ability of the human mind to generate both positive and negative hallucinations based on deeply-held expectations. From my perspective, what I would say is going on is that people are hallucinating details that align their perceptions with preconceived notions of what they should be experiencing. For example, in the first clip with the guy typing on the computer, I would argue that the reason many people do not notice they are two different people is because the human brain actually alters the appearance of the second guy in order to make him look consistent with the appearance of the first guy. This is also the same mechanism behind optical illusions: Your perception of what you are seeing alters according to what you expect to see.
1:55 That lady is my dad's girlfriend, just found out a few minutes ago when she told me i'm still shocked, considering I just watched this video in psychology class about a month ago without even realizing it was her. That building behind her is where she worked, now she lives in wisconsin with us.
Its not always about missing the changes. We accept the reality we are given. From the fantasies of childhood we learned that our reality can be different than we perceive. So when something changes we've trained ourselves, with the help of people like parents and friends, to ignore what we believed was true, and go with what we see now. We get so good at it that we often don't even know we're doing it anymore. ;)
I find this concept both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. The murderous potential of that concept; the first person could be your lover the second your hit man!
In another recreation of that experiment they tried different changes and it totally worked. The first guy was white and they changed him with a black guy and an Asian looking women. But they don't show the cases where it doesn't work.
I don't actually remember people's faces very often because of short conversations or lack of interest and when I come across again I try to think that they seem familiar until I recall the last meeting. Seems this is what it tries to explain.
That's not true. They are distinctly different in facial structure if you just pay attention to it... Not to mention that the first guy has stubble, and the second doesn't ;)
A teacher staged an argument with a friend who walked in. Then asked students to each write eyewitness description and testimony. They differed wildly.
Exactly alike? Facial hair and chubby cheeks are definitely enough to tell two people apart. The whole point is that there isn't anything so obvious as to trigger a "there's an inconsistency in this story" reaction in your brain, but you'd have to be looking extremely casually to not be able to tell the two of them apart when you're aware that there's two people
Very helpful idea illustrated with a funny experiment. Video guy, 100 thumbs up for you, i liked your content delivery and "you both are wrong" comment made me ROFLMAO. Kudos.
I did think the 2nd guy looked different, but just figured it was because the first clip showed him in different lighting, and a different angle. I thought it might be a different guy, but based on the couple seconds shown, I wasn’t calling it out. That happened to me with an old girlfriend and the one-two Switcheroo.
The unreliability of eye witness testimony is often compounded by the trauma of the event/crime that was witnessed, and the effects of the stress response in our bodies.
Some of this is of no consequence, in my opinion. On the road, however, it is. We know the rules of the road and we know to look for pedestrians and varying speeds or movements of vehicles. The inability to notice change in the first two examples is irrelevant to safety. In the countryside hitting wildlife is a worry. I recently hit a wallaby at low speed because it leapt under my car from the side and I couldn't apply the brakes in time. I was paying attention but wasn't observing the area I had already passed.
I wonder if they looked more closely at who noticed the swapped guys and who didn’t if you’d find any trends, like if the people who noticed were former soldiers, if they looked the other person in the eye, or if they found the person attractive, scary, or weird looking.
I would have loved to see race played into this. It’s true that white people pay attention to and can recognize white people more, likewise with black people recognizing and paying attention to other black people more. At least that is what I’ve heard, I’d love for someone to do this experiment.
Its been found its dependent on the race you grew up with, which is usually the same as your own, however when those of a different race have been adopted into areas with predominantly one race they tend to recognise differences in that race easier.
Even after knowing they are two different people in the office, they wear the same clothes, they look similar and different views. THe first view is closeup and evenly lit, the 2nd is further away, less clear and contrasty.
Priceless was College girl who was pressed on how she so confidently knew College guy was swapped out with an older brother version of the first? She coyly admitted to having designs on the College aged one.
I have a detailed visual eidetic memory. I wouldn't go as far as say photographic memory because I cannot recall things I didn't initially perceive. That is what they are really indicating here. I will say however that I do notice inconsequential things at times subconsciously, like the fact that there are 12 bars in each section of fence. Why do I know that? I have no idea. I just remember it. I don't know how people don't notice the guy's hat color changes from black to blue or that one has jeans and the other is in shorts and flip-flops. This things seem obvious to me. I actually remember customers I sold computers to 24 years ago. Again, not even sure why. That's part of the reason I got out of the service industry.
If anything, I'm more surprised i noticed something about the guy was off. Mostly, i noticed the 2nd guy's lips wasn't as red as the first guy's so i thought either it was a very different time, or it was a different guy. Dkes half correct count?
I believe what changed about in the experiment at the beginning of the video is at the second clip the guys shirt changed from a collared shirt to a crewneck shirt
That just seems like the worst possible way to test this. Having them walk directly between two strangers while holding a big ass slab of plywood? Why not just have them step out of the room for a second or something smh.
Honestly they look like the same person to me, except at different angle. I thought it was odd that he was working on a laptop but answered a corded phone
I noticed that the guy in the second shot didn't have the same facial hair as the guy in the first shot, but didn't realize that it was two different guys because I'm bad with faces as it is.
The only difference I see in the first two people is their shirts. They look like the same person. And for the wood switch, why would someone expect a switch if a different stranger dressed the same continues the same conversation. This is more like a gaslighting prank than a recognition mistake. The guy at 2:13 who bolted after the switch probably recognized the switch and thought he was being set up for something and wasn’t playing that game. He’ll probably never help someone asking for directions again. Who memorizes every little detail of a random person when he’s directed to look at a piece of paper. This is a “biased” experiment. And as far as remembering every detail of literally everything in the field of vision on a public street, the scientific results are “No 5hit Sherlock”.
0:35 I still can’t see that they are two different guy even when putting the two scenes together, is this racial face recognitive barrier or do they really look alike?
so the brain uses like the computer uses cache. and we often see our common surronding as a information previously stored when we walked down the same path. then i think it explain why we get more exicted and see more closely when we are on the new place or new town. damn!!!!!!!!!!!
+Tdasilva 0.0 i didnt notiuce untill you said so lol PSychology is god damn interresting you can troll ppl. all day by just using your knowledge against em XDD
I think they're rather distinguishable. Chubby cheeks, wider-set bone structure, facial hair... The first guy certainly doesn't look exactly like the second guy.
This doesn't work if you're familiar with the people or place. Being that close to the guy I'd notice since I'm expecting an attack I'd be reading his face to try and figure out his intentions. If one smelled like anything I'd notice the change.
