082 - Gorillas In Our Midst with Christopher Chabris

In this episode, we are joined by cognitive psychologist, Christopher Chabris, who is perhaps best known for his collaborative research on the Ig Nobel prize-winning ‘Gorillas in Our Midst’ experiment and his subsequent popular psychology book, The Invisible Gorilla. Chris is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Union College in New York and a Senior Investigator at Geisinger Health System. Why Chris believes companies often fail the test of inattentional blindness during the product design phase. Why our attention is more limited than we think and how learning self-control can help us to take in more information. Why we overvalue confidence and how we can work to recognize and overcome our own cognitive biases. Key Takeaways and Learnings Inattentional blindness: the surprising facts on how limited our attention is. Illusion of attention: why we think we pay more attention to things than we actually do. Human cognitive architecture: how understanding the limitations and foibles of the human mind can lead to successful product and technology design. Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode Get in touch with Christopher via email or Twitter Christopher's website The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us, a book by Christopher Chabris Invisible Gorilla, Facebook page Gorillas in Our Midst, scientific paper Selective Attention test, YouTube video of the experiment Ulric Neisser, the father of Cognitive Psychology A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age, a book by Matt Richtel 65% of Americans believe they are above average in intelligence, a study by Patrick R. Heck, Daniel J. Simons and Christopher F. Chabris Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, a book by Robert M Pirsig Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, a book by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us, a book by Duncan J. Watts Thinking, Fast and Slow, a book by Daniel Kahneman Innovaton Ecosystem Episode 070 – The Return on Investment of Mental Models with Robert Hagstrom Innovaton Ecosystem Episode 078 – Human Innovation, Smart Machines with Ed Hess