Why You Miss Big Changes Right Before Your Eyes | NOVA | Inside NOVA:

[@lolilops54]

Even when the two blokes at the start are shown side to side, I can't tell them apart!

[@cheesenipspartymix]

ikr -_-

[@2b3pro]

That’s cuz white people all look the same.

[@binkymagnus]

the only thing i noticed was that his shirt changed from a button-down shirt to a t shirt

[@bittersweetrain1740]

Yeah, it’s face blindness. I have it. Can’t tell people apart sometimes! I just memorize their clothes instead!

[@anhVOCALIST]

@@bittersweetrain1740 And their hair. The second one is clean shaven. It makes some TV shows really hard to watch.

[@Wolf88888]

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.

[@samk8005]

I didn't notice the two guys at the beginning were different people, but I did notice he went from collared shirt to undershirt.

[@martylei9803]

the same and i still dont see they are two different guys until reading your comment lol

[@martylei9803]

the same and i still dont see they are two different guys until reading your comment lol

[@yezi2231]

same

[@tushar0612]

Me too :P

[@seanmatthewking]

I also noticed that was a strange place for a phone.

[@wesleytarr6302]

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.

[@vanquish421]

Damn, the guy at 2:13 was having NONE of it.

[@softbreezy6052]

HILARIOUS

[@JasonB808]

The first test was cheating because they chose two people that look alike even when video is paused and looking at them at the same time. 😒

[@cedrdar]

I thought the same thing!

[@pattmahiney]

I think it is the same guy just no beard

[@calebgamble4132]

and thus the science behind stunt doubles..

[@kisterdrums]

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.

[@michellestrohwig1809]

Alex Kister omg no way

[@Ageminij]

As someone who is partially sighted and socially anxious, I pretty much never know what anyone looks like, even if I directly interact with them.

[@gingertaylor2966]

Same lol

[@softbreezy6052]

I've watched this 3 times and I still think the first two men are the same person.

[@cellsec7703]

Maybe the trick was trying making you think they were different people. Trust nothing!

[@mahatanveer2526]

ikr. I'm so confusedd🥺😥

[@LjCaples]

One's more fat faced than the other.

[@jeanpierre-louis2450]

Check the facial hair.

[@planethedgehog2427]

3:20 "Faulty memories can *wreck* havoc." No, but they can *wreak* them.

[@user-zp5ql2xi2s]

As I man who doesn’t like looking at other people’s faces. Sometimes I’m don’t even know who I’m talking to.

[@quelorepario]

How about switching the Asian guy for a black guy, i would love to see how far can we push it.

[@kingdomcome7954]

Real Life trolling

[@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei]

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.

[@Phrixusify]

when that bald guy kept talking about subtle changes in the background, i kept looking for something to change

[@theshark3422]

HAHHAHAHA

[@RjVega]

Very cool.... and the guy at 2:13 will be taking crap from nobody today.

[@Stuff_And_Things]

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. ;)

[@omayraortega9107]

In the very first example, even after they showed the men side-by-side, I couldn't tell them apart :(

[@Loddol21]

even when they explained they were different people.. they looked nearly identical!

[@StubbornDustin]

the two guys at the beginning look like the same person, even next to each other. doesn't quite fit the intended parameters of the experiment.

[@mrloop1530]

Yeah, I thought exactly the same.

[@MagnokTheMighty]

More than likely they're twins

[@gman52712]

You can tell hes one of those people that takes even the smallest joke as a seriously personal attack and freaks out like a baby.

[@usmh]

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 ;)

[@RonnieTeeSmith]

They could've just made it easier on us and kept the first guy white, and made the second guy black lol

[@juliawburn2352]

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.

[@seanmatthewking]

That said, the two white guys in the first sketch are the same person as far as I'm concerned.

[@jonnyw819]

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.

[@yenduong2951]

I saw another video where a white person was replaced with a black person and they still didn't notice!

[@AwesomeRobot15]

2:17 the guy just walks away

[@tdasilva2261]

Naaaaa you don't sY

[@homelackin2234]

nah you didnt remember it correctly. He "struts" away

[@microdesigns2000]

What guy, I don't remember any guy!

[@hughwaldock6980]

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!

[@themightysquid]

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”.

[@carolfleurette9743]

PBS, please add closed captioning to your videos so they are accessible to everyone!

[@VaughanMcCue]

You can turn it on with google chrome. Oh, I see 7 y old comment

[@dianeannelozano4481]

so amazed by this experiment..

[@ottifantiwaalkes9289]

Our mind is good for funtionality, not much for accuracy

[@pocketsfullofdynamite]

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.

[@larbur9342]

The guys at the beginning look exactly alike, even when you show them side by side. They should have chosen people with different looks.

[@vrocksummon1277]

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

[@overunityinventor]

in our neighborhood, there's a guy who sees just the eye of the bird and nothing else, and he is very successful

[@suchismitakar2154]

Just imagine how social media is ruining us with our brain already slacking

[@extendedp1]

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.

[@Desireanshu]

In the start, The only change I noticed was change from Shirt to Tshirt. Both person looked kinda same to me

[@sahilrao8182]

taking coursera?

[@videosakavidz1857]

@@sahilrao8182 i am lol

[@lawiwis882]

My brain felt happy that it noticed the 2 guys at the beginning are different😁

[@1964mcqueen]

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.

[@janahosch3960]

Yes, I've noticed

[@treefarm3288]

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.

[@cadani2996]

imprecionante, solo en 4 minutos y siete segundos , pude captar y aprender algo grandioso

[@juliantreidiii]

Those of us with (inappropriately named) attention deficit disorder are drowned by a deluge of information.

[@alamander4444]

I still couldn't tell it was two different people when he told us & showed them both on screen at the same time... Uh oh.

[@evilsharkey8954]

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.

[@retiredteacher6289]

A teacher staged an argument with a friend who walked in. Then asked students to each write eyewitness description and testimony. They differed wildly.

[@GlobalEltorro]

Very well made video, thank you.

[@alexabadi7458]

Everyday of my life I notice how nice and beautiful my wife is.

[@jeremycarter]

Same here.

[@mikecaney1]

I can say the same...

[@mikemondano3624]

You "wreck" havoc? What's left after the havoc is wrecked?

[@patienceparrott8881]

So THAT'S why my cousin can never remember what happened in Monopoly...

[@brianblackmore1678]

I always win at Monopoly too.

[@jaimearrisueno3]

Those two men were so different!

[@mamonzote]

Yea but you didnt notice the shirt changed too

[@jaimearrisueno3]

Eat Your Cereal also the flip flops!

[@mamonzote]

And the finger nails

[@kuldeeeep]

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.

[@DramOfScience]

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.

[@than217]

0:34 wasn't he the guy at Sandy Hook?!?! PROOF OF A CONSPIRACY!!!!! This concludes my one man show 'Internet Dumbass'

[@drtroyturner7464]

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.

[@spi6455]

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.

[@chefscorner7063]

I didn't see 2 different men at the computer, I saw they were wearing different shirts. One had a dress shirt the 2nd one had a T-Shirt on.

[@grumpchong]

In the opening scene the only weird thing I noticed was that the phone had a cord attached to it. It must have been 1992 calling.

[@yezi2231]

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?

[@CLEMIN3M]

Sad thing is I always fo remember most and I replay positive and negative outcomes in my head always so I have plans lol

[@G973_]

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?

[@memolano100]

This was done by Derren Brown long time ago.

[@truthseekers1475]

Because of this video we now all have an unconscious bias towards paying attention to those who are infront of us lol

[@Amtcboy]

Find another word, don’t use blindness coz it’s not blindness.

[@cookiesncream5134]

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

[@nicholasharvey1232]

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.

[@djprometheus923]

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.

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

it seem to me women didn't notice (or trust their perception about the switch) and the man just went away when he felt he got scam

[@geoffingoff]

the guys at the beginning look the exact fucking same. that's just... blindness.

[@tdasilva2261]

It was his tee shirt

[@iammoserdealwithit7097]

+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

[@vrocksummon1277]

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.

[@homelackin2234]

The first guy in the video look exactly like the guy who picked up the phone, just with a different white shirt lol

[@avairal5936]

In movies they would call this continuity error

[@rachelmercuryholmes]

Oooo thx for mentioning

[@bassdoc96]

we talked bout this video in sunday school-its a cool experiment:)

[@Daniel-xg3ul]

I work in a deli. Just today I had a lady mistake me for a big black man. I'm a short white guy. Not sure this explains it.

[@miggle1875]

It's possible that in the experiment the people who recognized the switch were sexually attracted to the first guy so took a mental note of his face.

[@tomshariat4167]

they picked twins for the experiment omg

[@shunketsuchannel]

Wow Brands also used change blindness for their advertisement

[@guitars2112]

3:20 It's 'wreak havoc' not 'wreck havoc'.

[@Jessica-kk1cz]

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

[@DistortedFaiths]

What if they did the experiment with identical twins? Would anyone notice?

[@jackie62496]

at first all i noticed was the shirts the two guys were wearing were different! they look like the exact same guy !

[@TissueCat]

Even when they showed them side-by-side, they look the same to me.

[@quaesitorverum7579]

Am I one of the few that noticed that there were two different men in the beginning?

[@persona3444]

Nah, I did too.

[@sahilrao8182]

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!!!!!!!!!!!

[@lady33357]

the first guy had dimples and the next one did not have dimples and i noticed it immediately due to my job

[@yousorooo]

Go UIUC!

[@latiie]

Who came here from the book called Psych Experiments by Michael A. Britt?

[@winifredherman4214]

“Wreck” havoc? It’s “ wreak”..

[@bambinothegreat7700]

What f do ones it mean for the ones who’d that would never work on

[@grapefruitpineapple7667]

0:35 ummm... even side by side they look like the same guy

[@dejureclaims8214]

Unreal.

[@Marcusha2001]

the people look exactly the same!

[@Craydon]

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.

[@steves_swaggy_signsb]

Yeah I'm not gonna lie, those two guys look very similar.

[@borninthefuturelivinginthe7178]

More less if the pedestrian doesn’t find you attractive then they will not notice. 😆

[@Eanetseli]

Apart from being two different men, they are wearing different clothes! The one is wearing a tshirt and the other one a shirt

[@MrGflan]

Who is here from Jordan Peterson? 🙋‍♂️

[@sgsge645]

The experiment at the start is not a good one. You can’t choose 2 dudes that look identical..

[@tamarinds]

Imagine watching this video and still believing democracy is a viable form of government.

[@kingdomcome7954]

Survival of the fittest.

[@nathanieltesfaye3661]

Who else here is in Psych 104 at the U of A

[@ryanenos7384]

Wreak* havoc

[@RickeySnake]

Check out Derren Brown

[@hillaryjune01]

Or trade an Attractive Person for a Not so actractive person... or the other way around!

[@ulisesfonseca7937]

are they twins or what?

[@iamfiveyearold]

what about gender as a foctor? can the gender of the participant impact the results?

[@carpballet]

Trans phobic content, right? I can’t believe he would say we might notice what sex someone is. “Trans women are women,” right?