The Battle of Inattentional Blindness

Former Yankees player and manager Yogi Berra once said, “You can see a lot from looking.” But there are times even when we’re looking where we miss something, where we fail to notice a detail — large or small. We don’t mean to miss it, it just happens because we are not expecting to find what we are not ready to see. This is referred to as “inattentional blindness.”

The most famous experiment on the subject, conducted by DJ Simons and C.F. Chabris, showed participants two teams playing basketball. One was dressed in white, the other in black. The people watching the video are told to count how many times the team in white passes the ball. Midway through the video, however, a gorilla walks onto the court, beats his chest, and then walks off. At the end, viewers totaled the number of passes, ranging from 14 to 17. But over half of the research group never saw the gorilla—and were even convinced it never appeared on the screen. Even when they watched the replay, they were still skeptical and suggested that the gorilla got spliced in later.

The study demonstrates that too often, we get caught up in the details and only find what we’re looking for, not what’s actually out there. As the old saying goes, “We cannot see the forest for the trees.” We hear the noise, and we lose sight of the signal. So how do we avoid “inattentional blindness?”

1. We must never set boundaries for what we examine. Once we narrow the focus, we miss too much.

2. Don’t define the problem. When we ask a narrow question, we focus on a narrow answer.

3. Always ask, what did we miss? Never focus on the main subject, always focus on what is not consider the most important.

4. Always consider a plan B before making a decision. Working on the alternative solution forces you to not miss anything.

5. Slow down. Take your time. It’s never as important as you think.

Making a mistake is part of our decision-making process. We all learn from our mistakes. However, making a mistake because we never saw the full picture is inexcusable. We need to be aware of inattentional blindness and plan accordingly.

We cannot let the gorilla to catch us off guard.

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