The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us

personal belief exemption” that allows them to forgo vaccination for their children for religious or other reasons.

Although vaccination is mandatory for all children attending public schools in the United States, in many states, parents can file

Modern stereo systems and video systems use digital standards such as HDMI to transfer information from one component to another. Yet prices on HDMI cables vary by more than a factor of ten: A cable that costs $5 will transmit the signal just as well as a cable that costs $50.

Hofstadter’s law tells us: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Since our experiment was published in the journal Perception in 1999, under the title “Gorillas in Our Midst,”12 it has become one of the most widely demonstrated and discussed studies in all of psychology. It earned us an Ig Nobel Prize in 2004 (awarded for “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”) and was even discussed by characters in an episode of the television drama CSI.