Added: 4 years ago
From: QuarksAreStrange
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  • Honestly, it's common courtesy to make eye contact with someone you interact with. How do you not notice one person of different hair and shirt color from an other -_-

  • Personally I feel that "change blindness" in an experiment like this can only truly work if there are similarities between the 2 people. For example, if they had the same hair colour or same coloured shirt. The fact that they are completely different would be immediately obvious to me. At least, this is what I think, can't say I've ever had a situation like this where something suddenly changes into something completely different without me noticing.

  • @AskaryuRS: The funny thing is; when you ask people about it, everybody is like: "well, ofcourse I would notice it, especially if they don't even look alike". But very little people do :P My professor told me about this guy in the US military, very high in rank, very respected, and when asked how he does his work so well, he answers: It's because I'm extremely 'visual', I notice every single visual detail. Guess what? He 'failed' this experiment too :P

  • @animelover123: *very few people I mean :P

  • @animelover123 I understand that, and I guess the whole idea is because people don't expect it. In this case it would just be; there's a guy in a hirt and tie with smart hair handing me a form. This does kind of tell the brain that there's nothing else important, but I'm one of those people who focuses on the person I'm interacting with, I wouldn't be looking around the room and stuff. (Maybe while I'm waiting to fill in the form).

  • Good stuff, I love experiments like this! I think it's all about whether people are inwardly or outwardly focused, those that are focusing their attention on their surroundings are probably more likely to notice but the people that didn't notice seemed more inwardly focused because they asked questions like 'how long will it be' and turned away to look at the doors they were about to go through instead of at where the experimentor was stood, imo anyway...

  • You just got linked from Cracked.

  • @thefameboy64 Hell yeah I did, haha. :D

  • cool...so,uh...did i get the job?

  • Noticed the trick to first magic trick..if you pay attention you can see a ball hit the table inside the cup when he sets it down, (2 in it to start) he then misdirects and takes the other one away in his right hand (your left).

  • Cracked.com!

  • i'm gonna guess dyslexic will notice the differences.

  • I would love to see this experiment replicated with all sorts of independent variables, and dozens of combinations therein. I notice the two subjects were approximately the same height and had similar-sounding voices (though *that* might just be the audio quality). Why not try it with either or both of those varying between the two subjects? Have one subject wear a tie and the other not. See if it's any different with women rather than men as the subjects. The possibilities are basically endless

  • @alexandrajade27 I think something that would probably greatly increase how often the change is noticed is if one was wearing standard employee wear like they were here, and the other person wore a completely different style of clothing. I'd imagine what most people see is "a guy in business casual behind the register". If that changed to something else, people would probably notice it a lot more.

    But, that's the kind of test that needs to be done, because assumptions in psych are bullshit.

  • Im mindfucking the shit outta you right now and you dont even know it!

  • It feels like I'm being confused by certain personality core.

  • Mindfuck...

  • Cool, works well with dancing bears in basketball games.

  • why did they experiment with idiots?..

  • @ballsh8

    Because all the biggest dumbasses were busy on youtube.

    BOOM!

  • @MrLetsdolunch Well thank you for admitting your idiocy.

  • I wasn't blind to the fact that this was apparently filmed with a potato.

  • Big deal, his shirt changes. The color of his shirt is immaterial to what he's saying. Why *should* we notice it?

  • @petrie911 That is exactly the point.

    You don't see the changes because you're concentrating on what's important, in this case, what he's saying. But of course this can be exploited by making you concentrate on what you THINK is important instead of what is really important.

  • i call bullshit

  • wow. even after reading the comments before watching the video and know what the video was about, i still had to go back to see his shirt change. *facepalm*...at least 75% of people are failing with me.

  • I didn't see it either. I actually misunderstood who's shirt was suppose change and I was going back and forth multiple times looking at the guys in the experiment and completely missed the change in the commentator's shirt every time. I have a hopeless one track mind.

  • damn how could i not notice the host changing his shirt? the whole point of the video is change blindness

  • There were three people who noticed the change (yes, I'm counting the first girl, she definately knew) and they were all women. The mistake the researchers made was they picked two guys who were potentially attractive and the women were attracted to one but not the other. This visceral, emotional attachment to the man - which was present then abscent (or vice versa) - would have tipped them off.

  • Fake, so obvious that it was acted out.

  • @VortexEater I'm guessing you didn't notice the shirts change colour then

  • @killer66250 I honestly thought the light kust change- not until you pointed it out did I realize it was the shirt XD XP

  • My guess: Those who noticed the two different guys thought one or the other was attractive.

  • @xooll

    Dang, I felt really clever about being the first one to come up with that. Good verification though, I'd call it a valid hypothesis to be going on with.

  • I KNOW I wouldn't have noticed.

    I'm lucky to remember who the heck I'm working with from day to day.

  • Oh, god, I fucking love that book *_*

  • The shirt is not change blindness, simply because it´s about selective memory. We´re shown a different clip in between without your brain actually taking in details about the first clips you´ve been shown. Would it happen during the same clip, then it would be change blindness.

  • What if there where two people of different skin colour,would people notice the change then?

  • @MarcZERO1980

    If the subject was paying attention to the person who changed, then perhaps.

  • The shirt thing might be legitimate, but it's hard for it to really impress me. Yes, I didn't notice the change, but two things. 1) His shirt is far from the focal point of my attention; I probably couldn't tell you what color it was right after the first time. 2) It's TV, and we're geared to not pay attention to editing. We just accept that bits from different interviews can be spliced together, so there's a mental tendency to write off differences.

  • Very interesting video, thanks!

  • Yeah, I would've noticed... The first guy was cuter than the second guy. SCHWING

  • I really want to try this with a white and a black guy...

  • @Ninjuit Experimenters have done this with ALL kinds of changes already, to see how far they can go.^^ Swapping guys with summer and winter clothing, a black guy for a white guy, a girl for a guy.

    But i think they haven't yet swapped a dog for a guy...

  • 1:19 to skip the boring intro

  • Holy shit! 583 guys got here from Cracked as well!!!

  • Wah...That is incredible.

  • they should have iq tested the subjects.

  • I will not lie, if I took this test, I KNOW I would notice. I like to study people.

  • @xXSilverHaloXx

    I, too, like to study people. For some odd reason, I find myself constantly fixated on people's faces (whether I am sitting with friends, or walking by strangers). People often catch me staring at them, but I can't help studying their faces. I honestly believe that if I were better at art, I would be able to draw my friends' faces from memory. But to be honest, I didn't notice the shirt change from 1:50 and 2:20 ... lol :P

  • @alexanerdable You also tend to stare at the right side of their faces (THEIR right, not yours)

  • @steveecker

    I have never payed attention to that, specifically, but that is quite possible!

  • @alexanerdable Yeah, I guess if you were paying extra attention to someones face you wouldn't notice the change of shirt :P

  • Noticing that something changed is one thing but having the guts to say it is something else.

  • I think they overdo it, people just ignore information that is useless. Everyone knows that. So what's the big deal? And no, I didn't see his shirt changed from red into blue because what advantage does that give to me?

  • @Pettetje Did you notice the explosives on his chest and the detonator at 1:53? That kind of passive information CAN have a blatant affect on you...

  • @steveecker What explosives? I don't see anything.

  • @Pettetje Exactly, but you went back and checked because I planted information for a possibility of information you dismissed. Disinformation can be just as effective (important) as omitting information. Those tactics are applied in several areas, especially military and other psychological fields. Even for entertainment, mentalists, illusionists etc... Sleight of hand is just such technique. Martial arts etc too, if I want to kick someone in the head, I need to set them up by disinformation :)

  • @steveecker Ok!Ok! You got me and you are right. In some situations it is important to notice what is happening at the background. I had my first exam today of the second term, and it was about memory and attention, didn't go so well :(

  • That ducking behind the counter is bullshit i would have picked that up immediately like a boss

  • Holy crap, the shirt color change on Professor Simons' shirt is awesome and hilarious. Being smooth, sneaky, and driving the point home all at once. Ha!

  • my professor showed us this in his lecture. a class of over 300 people were all cracking up lol

  • From 4:07-4:13 that guy looks like a fucking creeper

  • I think I would notice, I always analyse people's faces so im pretty sure I would realise it haha

  • I'm an artist and OCD, so I notice minute differences in peoples faces and also can see the similarities between family members pretty well. I'm not gonna say that I wouldn't be tricked, I actually want to participate in something like this (involuntarily of course) to see if I'd notice. xD

  • i obsessively observe my surroundings (I have OCD), so i'm sure i would haha

  • i'm sure i'd notice haha

  • If the second guy was instead was Oprah in a day-glow Mumu and a big fro - it'd get noticed.

  • IM VISITOR 400 000, disliked this video, IM DISLIKER 22!!! xD

  • ok, so i figured out how he made the ball disappear but do they show how the ball came under the cup thing again?

  • The second guy has two different coloured eyes. :)

  • I'm sure the ones who noticed were attracted to the first person.

  • Crazy. xD

  • Damn--I didn't notice the shirt change! I think I was too busy looking at the girl with the tight t-shirt on... was that a Che Guevara picture on it?

  • I would notice this because I pay attention to people when I talk to them, so I guess its hard for me to see how people aren't catching that.

  • i would have notice it right away. i pay attention to just about everything especially big breast, if it was woman. wait maybe thats why they didint use women

  • @HarlequinByProxy what do you mean by that?

  • Check out Miranda-X and her new song Nightlife Fantasy

  • sucks we can't embed. i bet the author must make a great living out of these youtube videos...

  • One thing they are not considering: maybe the person DID notice the change, but they were more willing to think it was their mistake, so they dismiss the thought quickly.

  • @SANNAFABICH if that tought was on the conscience, they would describe it afterwars to the experimentor.

  • @kraglebit I'm talking about subconscious decisions our brain makes in less than a second. You are not aware of them because the brain doesn't want you to. In this case, the brain decides it was a mistake and discard the thought. That's my theory.

  • I love these kinds of experiments!

  • i was watching lie to me and i had to find out

  • 5:28 You can barely see the golf ball gripped in his hands and just like that it is edited out. I know that's not the point, but something funny to point out none the less.

  • i think what decides if you notice or not, is if something about the person catches your eye. for instance, if you look and think, hey, his hair looks just like my brothers. then when the next guy comes up, you would look and say, wait, this isn't right. it sounds pretty obvious, but i think people tend to overlook it.

  • geekeriffic. Sure this is true with some clueless harvard geek. Try doing that experiment at a convenience store with Joe Sixpack buying a pack of cigarettes. they are going to notice the change immediately.

    This experiment has a lot of bias. FAIL

  • @uglyedsel they have done it in several contexts.

  • i already have a pointy brain :)

  • At 1:50 and 2:20 his shirt changes.

    Now be honest, how many of you noticed?

  • @killer66250

    Good god they pulled one on me damn

  • @killer66250 Holy crap I bet they did that on purpose!

  • @killer66250 Nice catch! And no, I didn't notice it--though I should have known to be "on guard" for such tricks, considering the subject matter of the video. Good sneaky stuff!

  • @killer66250 Holy cow, it did.

    When I read Life, the Universe, and Everything, I couldn't help but notice how the S.E.P. field really seems to work.

  • @killer66250 dude I read your comment before watching that part and stupidly enough I still barely realized that the shirt changed.

  • @killer66250 GAHH, STOP FUCKING WITH MY MINDDDDD

  • @killer66250 Well I noticed now that you got second highest rated comment. I didn't even get a chance to be tricked...I hate you.

  • @somethingmundanethen Your fault for being foolish enough to read the comments before watching the video.

  • @killer66250 I did read your comment before watching the video. Guess what? I didn't notice the shirt changing.

  • @killer66250

    That just blew my mind.

  • @killer66250 *mind officially fucked*

  • @killer66250 LOOOL 

  • @killer66250 Your post is excellent, but I can't upvote it because that would imply that I did notice, which I did not.

  • @killer66250 HAH. Nice. No, I sure didn't.

  • @heartrocketblast I didn't either, troll-science is a art.

  • @killer66250 Fuck. I read the comments first.

  • @killer66250 oh shit nice one i ddnt evn see that dude

  • @killer66250

    so why must you state the obivious? the point of this video is to see if people are able to catch it. Do you honestly think that everyone on Earth would be able to spot it if you were able to? Its like finding easter eggs in a video game on your first run.

  • @SupaL33tKillar

    Why are you mad though?

  • @ridethelapras

    nah wasn't bad. Does it sounds so? Hmmm. Wrong choice of words then

  • @killer66250 Caught it immediately. Though I can attribute some of the "catch" to the two colors, one of which I love and the other of which I'll never wear, it was more so the change in setup. I'm a film maker that is quite anal when it comes to continuity.

    Hint: The background shifts to the left. ;-)

  • @killer66250 God dammit.

  • @killer66250 wow. I was thinking over and over in my head 1:50 and 2:20 shirt color change and then I didn't notice a thing because I forgot

  • 1:20

  • vote up if you got to this video because of an article on cracked

  • I like that one of the women noticed a pot full of dirt and plastic, but not the person standing right in front of her

    Its sad when you think of it, especially with this example, we don't notice the *people* around us, we don't notice that that waiter who brought us the wrong kind of eggs is every bit as human as us, with her own emotions and a multitude of reasons she may have gotten your order wrong, we notice whats important to us, the petty things like *human life* are pushed to the side

  • I find that I usually notice these things (like the gorilla or bear or whatever, card tricks, etc.) I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I've got ADHD -- I know that some scientists think that's a throwback to times when we had to notice things or die, so maybe it's a factor here.

  • @mikhyel me too, and they think it means we lose our attention to these things (I usually notice, but sometimes I can't put my finger on what exactly has changed. As for the invisible gorilla, I saw it and went back to counting passes.)

  • I bet men notices if there's a really attractive female that stands there first and then if they switched her for a just mediocre looking girl he would notice, and vice versa. Also if a person would have a mole or something in his/her face i think it would be easier to notice the change

  • @HarlequinByProxy That's an interesting point, I'd be interesting in setting up that experiment, or hearing of the results of it.

  • I loved how Dan Simon's shirt changes from red to blue between interviews. Very tricky, this vid.

  • of course the 2 who noticed were women.. they were probably focusing attention on the desk clerk because they felt some kind of attraction to him!

  • @avafrav I am the second woman who noticed (the one in the blue shirt) trust me these guys were just average guys - I was not at all attracted to them and I am sure they were chosen for this reason.

  • I have face blindness, so those guys looked pretty identical to me anyway. I had trouble telling them apart when they were standing next to each other, other than the shirt color being different.

  • @tekniklr A few weeks ago in Psychology I was looking into Eye Witness Testimony. And actually A LOT of people have trouble pointing out faces when they only see them briefly. Things such as Own age Bias (We can tell people of a similar age to us apart, better than we can with the much older or younger people).

    I'd be willing to say the same applies to Race. Which is why us Westerners often perceive Asians to all look very similar.

  • @mastermalpass Face blindness means that even though I'm white, I have trouble telling white people apart if they're both, say blonde.

  • @mastermalpass

    Interestingly enough, as an American that moved to Mexico, I found all Mexicans looked alike. After ten years, I can distinguish them with ease and all the Americans and Canadians look the same. It's a humorously odd change.

  • It's ironic that the Harvard professor's shirt changed from red to blue

  • Imagine David Tennant narrating and hosting this. It just got fifty times better.

  • @HarlequinByProxy No they did this research with just as many men as women. There are actually several studies that looked at this subject.

  • airplane outside at 5:01

  • I... I'd like to have this done to me. I'd imagine that I would notice, but who knows. Of course, I can't go in expecting it.... Dammit.

    They need to be strangers too, obviously.

  • cracked.com

  • Not necessarily, Dateline NBC did a similar experiment where they traded out an attractive woman for another woman who look totally different, and people still didn't notice it. You should watch it...very intriguing. The episode is called "Did you see that?!" off of Dateline NBC website

  • Not necessarily, Dateline NBC did a similar experiment where they traded out an attractive woman for another woman who look totally different, and people still didn't notice it. You should watch it...very intriguing

  • Did anyoune noticed any more changes, except of narator's shirt change from bordo, to blue ?

  • ..anyone else get here from cracked?

  • @brewerdrummer i did. haha cracked is awesome

  • @brewerdrummer i am also i love that site

  • @brewerdrummer where else ? :D

  • @brewerdrummer Cracked rules! anyone else seen the door test? thats amazing as well

  • @brewerdrummer I actually got here from Sam Harris's book, but then cracked linked me a week later

  • @brewerdrummer no. nobody

    duhh

  • Wow, we suck.

  • @HarlequinByProxy not if they had the same breast size they wouldnt.

  • @HarlequinByProxy that's actually an interesting observation and i could totally see that being possible.

  • I noticed his shirt change. LOL

  • omg this reminded me of doctor who.

    "There's something I'm missing.. something in the corner of my eye."

    lol 

  • youd be suprised how many practical applications can be derived from the sep principle. At my last waiting job, another server and i used to occasionally trade tables halfway though for breaks or just for fun. the more people at the table, the more points you get for pulling it off!

  • that's actually interesting, although not stuff i don't know already (harhar i'm showing off :P) anyways yeah it is pretty obvious that we don't notice these things.

    by the way, if the interviewing guy wants to be mean, he can say, "do you that that was a different person handing you this form?" "Oh wow! I didn't catch that" "Oh by the way, he's even wearing a different colored shirt" XD

  • I liked the bit with the gorilla.

  • People are often in Beta mode in thinking It's why you often buy foods or items you didn't originally intend to buy in a grocery store or mall Alpha, is where you are paying attention, you're alert and looking around you, such as driving (hopefully anyway) looking in all directions, keeping your eyes on the road, looking in the mirrors, watching your speed etc Although, if you did that "Alpha mode" in everyday life, people would think there is something wrong with you

  • Interesting specific about mind/vision, but not that unknown. It's the reason eyewitnesses are not really reliablee, regardless of the popular opinion. The brain only recognizes and remembers a small portion of what we look at, and it also MODIFIES experience as it sees fit.

    People convicted of crimes due mainly to eyewitness testimony , have truly been screwed.

  • The second guy should have been wearing a gorilla suit.

  • @balios1

    or naked.

    .....or a woman.

  • shirt changed colour

  • If someone pulled that gag on me I'd probably have a nervous breakdown or something...

  • I know that I (being a guy) would be a lot more likely to notice if it were two females rather then two males.

  • Annnnnnd this is why Humanity's never going to be anything more than idiotic.

  • it's really sad.

  • @Essencewing Aren't you a human?

  • @FTWinnable Humanity and humans are two completely different things though.

  • One funny thing is, that all the information that is ignored by the mind, is still recorded by the brain and proccessed by the subconsciousness.

    Which is why you sometimes know something is wrong or dangerous, even though you can't say why.

  • @Yora21 More correctly SOME information is recorded, but not recognized. It's not ALL things experienced, far from it. MOST information around us is ignored and forgotten.

  • I'll bet the gay men noticed.

  • indeed, it must be the female / male thing. The once that did notice, either was attracted to the first guy or thought he had something special

  • I find it funny, that some of the testers are pointing out random, out of the way things(ex. the girl talking about a pot with dirt in it next to her around 3:00 ) yet miss the obviousness of the change. Its so weird.

  • i probably would have noticed but only because of the shirts. i dont like faces so i pay attention to people clothes to identify them. if they had the same colour shirt on theres no way i would have noticed the switch, lol

  • @HarlequinByProxy I think that black people and women would be the main groups which notice these switches. I dont know why but, hey! Neither do the scientists!

  • Alright... I think it's just that some people give a crap and some don't. Stick a woman infront of a guy and change her and see if the guy notices. Yeah. Some people are more observant than others, some people wanna get laid, some people (same sex) are like "WE dude, gimme the paper and get me outa here". Heh. Plus if someone is bombarded with activity (city) all day long they will become desensitized to smaller details. I'm lacking the "Oh wow!" factor on this video.

  • sounds like the Monty Python narrator at the very beginning

  • @flattoptyce It is Douglas Adams

  • notice the change blindness test they hid in this video, at 1:53 the professor explaining the test is wearing a red shirt, at 2:18 he is wearing a blue shirt, same room, same position