Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

[Kepler]

A very nice one to get us started.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

This picture doesn't show up well enough on screen. In the original, you really could read the letters "S E X" airbrushed into the highlights in the curls of her hair below her chin and above her, um, pendant.

 

[WisconsinWildcard]

Re: Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

One of my favorites.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/31/when-experts-go-blind/

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

One of my favorites.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/31/when-experts-go-blind/

Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking Fast and Slow, recounts an even more amazing example. (actually, now that I look it up...) he cites a book by Chabris and Simons called The Invisible Gorilla. As described by Kahneman:

[in] a short film of two teams passing basketballs, one team [is] 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 [only]. This task is difficult and completely absorbing. Halfway through the video, a woman wearing a gorilla suit appears, crosses the court, thumps her chest, and moves on. The gorilla is in view for 9 seconds. Many thousands of people have seen the video and about half of them do not notice anything unusual.
[more description and commentary]
The gorilla study illustrates two important facts about our minds: we can be blind to the obvious, and we also are blind to our blindness.

 

[LynahFan]

Re: Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

National Geo's version.

 

[WisconsinWildcard]

Re: Optical Illusions I: You never get a second chance at a first impression

Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking Fast and Slow, recounts an even more amazing example. (actually, now that I look it up...) he cites a book by Chabris and Simons called The Invisible Gorilla. As described by Kahneman:

That is probably one of the best ones in history. I remember watching that in an undergrad class for the first time and it changed the way I look at the world. The radiology example is a homage to that.