The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us

The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us

by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

We have a huge faith in our senses. We believe what we see; we react to emotions rather than logic; we feel more knowledgeable about things we use; we react to and believe in a personality and we see patterns in events which occur in a sequence i.e. something that has happened must have been triggered by a prior event. All of this happens because we have been endowed with an incredible brain capable of processing so much sensory information in a blink usually, perceiving details which form the basis of our decisions. We have evolved to look around ourselves, believe in what we see, feel we know what we use, empathize and bond with other living beings and recognize patterns for our safety and simplification of our surroundings. This mode of evolution has ensured our continual survival and development .This from of decision making is what we call our intuition, an invaluable tool in times when quick decisions are required but which goes awry the moment we try to analyze and think things through.

“The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us” is an account of the very fallible nature of the human perceptions and decisions made based on them. Also, it’s incredibly difficult to be consciously aware of these illusions. We have grown up with them, developing our civilization on their basis: the society, the perceptions, the uncanny ability to find patterns where none might exist. Actually, we have built one illusion upon another and ironically, nothing other than the proof of our own visual senses is sufficient to show our own follies It has been demonstrated by the authors of this book, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons through their famous “Count the passes and Gorilla in the Game” video experiment.

Through the Gorilla experiment, anecdotes, true stories and events, authors have brought out the illusions we suffer and how to identify them and nullify their effect on our decision making. Particularly, the causation between the MMF (Measles ,Mumps and Reubella) Vaccination and diagnoses of autism shows the impact on our well-being because of people believing and empathizing with individuals, rather than statistics and scientific studies and seeing a causation where none exist or at the most a very unfortunate/fortunate , as might be applicable, coincidence has occurred.

The book is highly readable even for those who do not associate science, psychiatry etc. with their readings. The experiments done and their descriptions presented in a lucid, clear, general everyday language draws people in reading this book making it unputdownable. The readability of this book emphasizes the studies done and the conclusions drawn in a way nothing else could have done better. The fact that all experiments were done on human beings and we respond to our fellow human beings makes the book an enjoyable and informative read.

The conclusions drawn in this book provide insights into the human psyche and behavior and these can be applied in the broad spectrum of today’s human civilization and society comprising of diverse aspects like judiciary, health and welfare services, behavioral economics, finance, marketing for both advertisers and their target audience and above all for the eternal quest to understand ourselves.