Without realizing it, people will perceive things according to how they want
to see them, a new study suggests.
"There is an age old hypothesis in psychology that a person's wishes, hopes
and desires can influence what they see," said David Dunning, Cornell University
psychologist and co-author of the study. "This theory had lay dormant for about
40 years, though, without any supporting evidence. We wanted to test the murky
waters again."
In five separate tests conducted by Dunning and a graduate student, Emily
Balcetis, 412 volunteers from Cornell were presented with an ambiguous picture
that could be interpreted as two distinct figures?either a horse's head or the
body of a seal, for example. They were told they would be assigned to a taste
test of either fresh-squeezed orange juice or a gelatinous, clumpy and rather
unappealing veggie smoothie, depending on whether they saw a farm animal or sea
creature.
More often than not the participants chose the figure that would lead them to
the juice.
The trick to making the study meaningful was making sure the test subjects
didn't know what was going on, Dunning said, noting that the generally high IQ
of Cornell students made cheating a real possibility.
"The figures we used were chosen so we knew the people weren't just lying or
tricking us," Dunning told LiveScience. "We also tracked automatic, unconscious
eye movements which were out of their control."
Not only did participants routinely see the figure that produced favorable
results, their eye motions indicated that they were never aware of the alternate
option being available.
Other scientists who have studied the connection between belief and
physiological reactions in the eye, now supported by Dunning's research, point
to its possibilities in the world of positive thinking and self-motivation.
"Determining whether a person walking towards you is smiling or smirking, how
close the finish line seems in a race or how loud a partner?a wife, husband,
lover?is yelling during an argument," Dunning gave as examples that could arise
in life. "Could we interpret ambiguous situations towards our expectations and
hopes and away from our fears? That is the ultimate question."
The study will be published later this year in the Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology.
