Perception vs Reality
Jan 19th, 2008 by Nut
This article has been getting some media coverage lately and I can see why.
It discusses some experiments that revealed people find a more expensive bottle of wine better tasting if the price is much higher, even though it’s really the same exact wine.
Which makes you think, “Ok, I get it. I can see that happening. They are just perceiving it to be better tasting. Their mind is playing tricks on them. But OK, I buy it.”
Then you read this part:
“Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles.”
That took me a while to wrap my head around. This no longer falls under the category of perception—the ability to solve puzzles is reality.
It reminds me of how important confidence is in professional sports: many a times you’ll read about a player being “ruined” from lack of confidence. Why? His abilities are no longer as good as they once were when he was confident. While it may sound like hogwash to us amateurs, this study may help us see just how complex the mind is and how it can influence the reality around us.
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The Wire, Season 4
A very example of this occurred in last Thursday’s Laker game. Since the Laker’s starting center has been injured the backup player, Kwame Brown, was asked to take his place. However, by the middle of the first quarter the fans had started to boo Brown whenever he touched the ball. A common enough practice by opposing fans when the team is on the road. But this was a home game. And Brown was just returning to play from an injury himself. By the third quarter, Brown was missing dunks, travelling with the ball, and by the fourth quarter his coach had pulled him from the game. As I watched the game, I could see that Brown was initially surprised by the fans but gradually I could see that what he really wanted to do was just get it over with. What most people don’t get about a game that requires you to run and catch at full speed is that it absolutely requires that you be in condition to do both. Long layoffs don’t change your skills but they do affect your ability to use them. This mis-understanding plus Brown’s previous problems (from last year by the way not this one) may have been behind the boos but it certainly turned into a case of perception affecting the reality.