What we see is distorted by what we hope to see
New research carried out by experts from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Plymouth (England) shows that humans "see" the actions of others not as really as they are, but slightly distorted by our expectations.
Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study could explain why people often misinterpret the actions of others.
The study had the participation of 85 people. In the experiment, they saw on a touch screen how a hand reached an object with a straight or arched path.
Occasionally, an obstruction was placed between the hand and the object it was reaching. Therefore, the arcuate trajectory was expected to avoid the obstruction, while the straight path was "inefficient". Where there was no obstruction, direct action was the easiest to reach directly to the target, while the arched path was unnecessary and unexpected.
In the experiment, the action momentarily disappeared halfway through the trajectory and the participants to describe what they had seen, had to judge which of the trajectories was the most efficient in each case.
Predictions
The results showed that people had judged that the straight trajectory of the hand moved higher if it was inefficient, to avoid obstruction, while they perceived that the arched trajectory of the hand was lower towards the target if there was no obstruction.
In both cases, participants' perceptions were based on what they expected the hand to do to maximize efficiency, not on what they actually did.
While the experiment referred to physical movement, it could help us understand how people discover what others think and feel; that is, why they behave the way they do, explains Matthew Hudson, leader of the work.
"Primates interpret behavior as directed to an objective and expect others to achieve the objectives in the most efficient way possible," he said. "While this is accepted among psychologists, little has been known about its underlying mechanisms.What we have found in this study can be important for several reasons.First, it shows that people make predictions when they see the actions of others "
"So imagine that you are a passenger in a car and you see a cat running out into the street, if the driver has seen it, you can imagine that you should slow down and get away to avoid it. He has not seen the cat and you can warn him, "he clarifies.
Finally, according to experts, the results show that people "see" the actions of others in light of their own expectations. If we see someone looking at something with a neutral expression and we think they are angry, they may look a little more angry than they really are. "This could explain why people often misinterpret the actions of others and consider ambiguous behavior to be significant," Hudson concludes.
