In a world as abundant and complex as ours, how is it possible to function?
What do I mean?
Take, for example, a sunny day when you decide to go out and buy chocolate.
Well, let’s go…
You slip on your shoes, ensuring a snug fit, and grab your wallet, a familiar weight in your hand.
Keys almost forgotten! You scoop them up with a quick glance back. Exiting your home, sunlight kisses your cheeks, warming your skin as you tread familiar paths.
Two blocks later, you find yourself at the store, greeted by the comforting scent of cocoa and the promise of indulgence.
Retrieving your favorite chocolate, you breeze through checkout, the familiar routine a testament to the ease of everyday tasks.
Just like that, you have your chocolate and a nice walk on a sunny day.
Easy, right?
If it seems easy to you, it’s thanks to the power of “attention.”
None of that could have been remotely easy if it weren’t for where we are focusing at any given moment or, more specifically, what elements of our environment we are “filtering” at any given moment.
What do I mean by that?
The world is awesome, at least in my opinion, and in that awesomeness, there are lots of different things around: people, animals, colors, sounds, heat/cold, thoughts, etc.
That can make us experience reality in a very pleasant way, but if it were not for attention, it could also be the reason for us to be agitated, exhausted, and angry.
This ability to filter the stimulus is called “sensory filtering.”
Sensory filtering is what allows us to distinguish/filter between what we could consider relevant or irrelevant at any given moment.
Let’s take the previous example of going for chocolate, but now we have no “sensory filtering.”
You wake up and immediately become bombarded with sensations from your environment.
The sounds of birds chirping outside, the feel of your bedsheets against your skin, all compete for your attention equally.
As you groggily attempt to put on your shoes, every detail of the room demands your focus, from the texture of the carpet to the patterns on the walls.
When you reach for your wallet, you’re inundated with the sight and feel of every object in the vicinity, the keys on the table, the loose change on the countertop, the pictures on the wall.
As you fumble for your house keys, every sound outside, the passing cars, the rustling leaves, the distant conversations, seems equally urgent and distracting.
Finally, when you step outside, the sheer volume of sensory input overwhelms you.
The brightness of the sun, the warmth of the air, the myriad colors and shapes of the world around you all flood your senses at once.
It’s as if every detail of the environment is demanding so strongly your attention, making it nearly impossible to focus on the simple act of walking to the store.
Sounds crazy, right?
The reality is that is exactly what would happen at any given moment if we weren’t gifted with sensory filtering; it’s again part of the design. We would not be able to survive if it weren’t for it.
The interesting part is that this is only the beginning; attention goes way beyond sensory filtering.
The Gorilla in the room
For example, there was an experiment conducted by psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons in the late 1990s.
The experiment aimed to investigate selective attention and perception.
In the experiment, participants were asked to watch a video where two teams, one wearing white shirts and the other wearing black shirts, passed a basketball around.
Participants were instructed to count the number of passes made by one of the teams, typically the team wearing white shirts.
After the video ended, the participants were asked a couple of simple questions along the lines of: How many passes did you count?
Did you find the task difficult?
Did you see the gorilla?
Of course, as you can imagine, the common answer to the last question was:
“The what???”
They found out that participants in the experiment didn’t notice there was a person dressed as a gorilla who walks by in the middle of the field, stays there for a couple of seconds, and then continues walking.
That is the “Invisible Gorilla Experiment”; when participants saw the video again afterward, they couldn’t believe their eyes, some of them even argued that it was a different tape.
How does attention works?
This phenomenon is known as “Inattentional blindness”.
Inattentional blindness occurs because our attentional resources are limited, and our brains prioritize certain information while filtering out irrelevant or peripheral stimuli.
This selective attention allows us to focus on tasks efficiently but can also lead to errors in perception when unexpected things or events capture our attention.
Then to go on and explain how does an experiment with a guy dressed as a gorilla relate to our daily life, in their book, “The Invisible Gorilla,” they provide plenty of examples of how “inattentional blindness” works.
Ranging, for example, to the very common car accidents that involve motorcycles.
One of the most common answers when someone collides with a motorcycle goes along the lines of:
“I didn’t see it” or “I did look in that direction, but I didn’t see any motorcycle.”
Of course, there may be a possibility they are just lying and they did see the motorcycle, but then it was just too late.
In fact, people may be even prone to just think it’s a plain lie, but having a better understanding of how inattentional blindness works, there is a very real possibility that the driver really didn’t “see” the motorcycle.
Why does this happen?
Let’s remember that inattentional blindness occurs when our focus/attention is aimed at something specific and then an unexpected event/thing occurs.
The key word here is “unexpected” – Let’s take the motorcycle example again.
When car drivers are at the wheel, their attention is aimed at other cars; that is the default or autopilot mode, if you want to call it like that.
That means that motorcycles get to be the “unexpected.”
At night, for example, car drivers are always looking for the sign of other cars, which is 2 separate front lights.
Then, as you can imagine, the one and only front light of a motorcycle becomes the unexpected stimuli.
That is just one example.
The same can happen in many other instances:
1- When fighting, there is this “tunnel vision” where the fighter may not notice there are other 2 potential threats coming just in front of him.
2- When a Radiologist examining X-Ray in order to spot a tumor or broken bone, he may miss (be blind to) a piece of medical wire that was left by accident inside the patient.
The funny thing is that the unexpected is by nature not able to expect or forecast.
Precisely, as the author of the book “The Black Swan” Nassim Taleb said:
“It is not dying because your parachute didn’t open while skydiving… it is dying because the guy whose parachute didn’t open landed on you while you were golfing.”
How attention can also work in our perceptions
We have now understood how attention through “Sensory filtering” or “Inattentional blindness” can work at any given moment.
The interesting last part of this is that attention and inattentional blindness can also very much happen in our inner world of thought and emotions.
What do I mean by that?
Well, the same way the car driver won’t see the motorcyclist if all he is looking for are cars.
You may also not notice the loving gestures your significant other is doing for you if you are focused only on the stuff you dislike or annoys you.
You can slip by the beautiful opportunity of winding down and enjoying the rain and the present moment if you are only focused on being late to work.
You may not “see” the multiple blessings in your life right now if all you are focused on are the things that you don’t like or would.
As the famous author and conference guru Tony Robbins once said:
“You don’t experience the life you have; you experience the life you focus on.”
So be very mindful where you are putting your attention.
Try to remember some of what you learned today, and don’t talk on a cell phone while driving (doesn’t matter if it’s Bluetooth), the inatentional blindness effect is the same.
Place your attention on the things that you enjoy, that you want.
Remember, placing it on negative outcomes, annoying problems that come up, or any other useless stuff like that will literally blind you to the opportunities that may arrive, to the blessings that you already have, and to all the great things that come in life to those with an open heart.
Much love.
Zifush.