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Translator: Joseph Geni
Reviewer: Ivana Korom
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Vision is the most important
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and prioritized sense that we have.
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We are constantly looking
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at the world around us,
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and quickly we identify and make sense
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of what it is that we see.
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Let's just start with an example
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of that very fact.
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I'm going to show you
a photograph of a person,
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just for a second or two,
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and I'd like for you to identify
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what emotion is on his face.
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Ready?
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Here you go. Go with your gut reaction.
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Okay. What did you see?
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Well, we actually surveyed
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over 120 individuals,
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and the results were mixed.
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People did not agree
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on what emotion they saw on his face.
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Maybe you saw discomfort.
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That was the most frequent response
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that we received.
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But if you asked the person on your left,
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they might have said regret or skepticism,
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and if you asked somebody on your right,
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they might have said
something entirely different,
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like hope or empathy.
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So we are all looking
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at the very same face again.
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We might see something
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entirely different,
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because perception is subjective.
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What we think we see
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is actually filtered
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through our own mind's eye.
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Of course, there are many other examples
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of how we see the world
through own mind's eye.
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I'm going to give you just a few.
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So dieters, for instance,
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see apples as larger
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than people who are not counting calories.
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Softball players see the ball as smaller
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if they've just come out of a slump,
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compared to people who had
a hot night at the plate.
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And actually, our political beliefs also
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can affect the way we see other people,
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including politicians.
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So my research team and I
decided to test this question.
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In 2008, Barack Obama
was running for president
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for the very first time,
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and we surveyed hundreds of Americans
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one month before the election.
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What we found in this survey
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was that some people, some Americans,
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think photographs like these
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best reflect how Obama really looks.
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Of these people, 75 percent
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voted for Obama in the actual election.
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Other people, though,
thought photographs like these
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best reflect how Obama really looks.
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89 percent of these people
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voted for McCain.
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We presented many photographs of Obama
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one at a time,
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so people did not realize
that what we were changing
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from one photograph to the next
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was whether we had artificially lightened
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or darkened his skin tone.
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So how is that possible?
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How could it be
that when I look at a person,
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an object, or an event,
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I see something very different
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than somebody else does?
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Well, the reasons are many,
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but one reason requires that we understand
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a little bit more about how our eyes work.
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So vision scientists know
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that the amount of information
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that we can see
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at any given point in time,
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what we can focus on,
is actually relatively small.
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What we can see with great sharpness
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and clarity and accuracy
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is the equivalent
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of the surface area of our thumb
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on our outstretched arm.
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Everything else around that is blurry,
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rendering much of what is presented
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to our eyes as ambiguous.
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But we have to clarify
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and make sense of what it is that we see,
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and it's our mind
that helps us fill in that gap.
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As a result, perception
is a subjective experience,
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and that's how we end up seeing
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through our own mind's eye.
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So, I'm a social psychologist,
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and it's questions like these
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that really intrigue me.
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I am fascinated by those times
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when people do not see eye to eye.
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Why is it that somebody might
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literally see the glass as half full,
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and somebody literally sees it
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as half empty?
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What is it about what one person
is thinking and feeling
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that leads them to see the world
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in an entirely different way?
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And does that even matter?
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So to begin to tackle these questions,
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my research team and I
decided to delve deeply
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into an issue that has received
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international attention:
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our health and fitness.
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Across the world,
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people are struggling
to manage their weight,
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and there is a variety of strategies
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that we have to help us
keep the pounds off.
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For instance, we set
the best of intentions
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to exercise after the holidays,
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but actually, the majority of Americans
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find that their New Year's resolutions
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are broken by Valentine's Day.
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We talk to ourselves
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in very encouraging ways,
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telling ourselves this is our year
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to get back into shape,
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but that is not enough to bring us back
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to our ideal weight.
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So why?
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Of course, there is no simple answer,
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but one reason, I argue,
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is that our mind's eye
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might work against us.
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Some people may literally see exercise
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as more difficult,
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and some people might literally
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see exercise as easier.
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So, as a first step
to testing these questions,
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we gathered objective measurements
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of individuals' physical fitness.
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We measured the circumference
of their waist,
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compared to the circumference
of their hips.
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A higher waist-to-hip ratio
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is an indicator of being
less physically fit
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than a lower waist-to-hip ratio.
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After gathering these measurements,
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we told our participants
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that they would walk to a finish line
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while carrying extra weight
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in a sort of race.
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But before they did that,
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we asked them to estimate the distance
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to the finish line.
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We thought that the physical states
of their body
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might change how they perceived
the distance.
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So what did we find?
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Well, waist-to-hip ratio
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predicted perceptions of distance.
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People who were out of shape and unfit
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actually saw the distance
to the finish line
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as significantly greater
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than people who were in better shape.
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People's states of their own body
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changed how they perceived
the environment.
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But so too can our mind.
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In fact, our bodies and our minds
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work in tandem
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to change how we see the world around us.
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That led us to think that maybe people
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with strong motivations
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and strong goals to exercise
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might actually see
the finish line as closer
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than people who have weaker motivations.
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So to test whether motivations
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affect our perceptual
experiences in this way,
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we conducted a second study.
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Again, we gathered objective measurements
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of people's physical fitness,
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measuring the circumference of their waist
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and the circumference of their hips,
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and we had them do
a few other tests of fitness.
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Based on feedback that we gave them,
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some of our participants told us
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they're not motivated
to exercise any more.
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They felt like they already met
their fitness goals
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and they weren't going
to do anything else.
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These people were not motivated.
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Other people, though,
based on our feedback,
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told us they were highly motivated
to exercise.
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They had a strong goal
to make it to the finish line.
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But again, before we had them
walk to the finish line,
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we had them estimate the distance.
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How far away was the finish line?
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And again, like the previous study,
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we found that waist-to-hip ratio
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predicted perceptions of distance.
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Unfit individuals saw
the distance as farther,
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saw the finish line as farther away,
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than people who were in better shape.
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Importantly, though, this only happened
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for people who were not motivated
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to exercise.
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On the other hand,
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people who were highly motivated
to exercise
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saw the distance as short.
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Even the most out of shape individuals
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saw the finish line
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as just as close,
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if not slightly closer,
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than people who were in better shape.
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So our bodies can change
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how far away that finish line looks,
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but people who had committed
to a manageable goal
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that they could accomplish
in the near future
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and who believed that they were capable
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of meeting that goal
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actually saw the exercise as easier.
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That led us to wonder,
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is there a strategy that we could use
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and teach people that would help
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change their perceptions of the distance,
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help them make exercise look easier?
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So we turned
to the vision science literature
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to figure out what should we do,
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and based on what we read,
we came up with a strategy
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that we called,
"Keep your eyes on the prize."
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So this is not the slogan
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from an inspirational poster.
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It's an actual directive
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for how to look around your environment.
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People that we trained in this strategy,
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we told them to focus their attention
on the finish line,
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to avoid looking around,
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to imagine a spotlight
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was shining on that goal,
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and that everything around it was blurry
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and perhaps difficult to see.
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We thought that this strategy
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would help make the exercise look easier.
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We compared this group
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to a baseline group.
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To this group we said,
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just look around the environment
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as you naturally would.
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You will notice the finish line,
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but you might also notice
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the garbage can off to the right,
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or the people and the lamp post
off to the left.
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We thought that people
who used this strategy
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would see the distance as farther.
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So what did we find?
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When we had them estimate the distance,
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was this strategy successful
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for changing their perceptual experience?
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Yes.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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saw the finish line as 30 percent closer
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than people who looked around
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as they naturally would.
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We thought this was great.
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We were really excited because it meant
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that this strategy helped make
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the exercise look easier,
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but the big question was,
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could this help make exercise
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actually better?
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Could it improve the quality
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of exercise as well?
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So next, we told our participants,
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you are going to walk to the finish line
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while wearing extra weight.
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We added weights to their ankles
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that amounted to 15 percent
of their body weight.
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We told them to lift their knees up high
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and walk to the finish line quickly.
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We designed this exercise in particular
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to be moderately challenging
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but not impossible,
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like most exercises
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that actually improve our fitness.
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So the big question, then:
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Did keeping your eyes on the prize
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and narrowly focusing on the finish line
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change their experience of the exercise?
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It did.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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told us afterward that it required
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17 percent less exertion
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for them to do this exercise
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than people who looked around naturally.
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It changed their subjective experience
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of the exercise.
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It also changed the objective nature
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of their exercise.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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actually moved 23 percent faster
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than people who looked around naturally.
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To put that in perspective,
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a 23 percent increase
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is like trading in
your 1980 Chevy Citation
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for a 1980 Chevrolet Corvette.
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We were so excited by this,
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because this meant that a strategy
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that costs nothing,
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that is easy for people to use,
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regardless of whether they're in shape
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or struggling to get there,
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had a big effect.
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Keeping your eyes on the prize
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made the exercise look and feel easier
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even when people were working harder
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because they were moving faster.
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Now, I know there's more to good health
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than walking a little bit faster,
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but keeping your eyes on the prize
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might be one additional strategy
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that you can use to help promote
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a healthy lifestyle.
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If you're not convinced yet
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that we all see the world
through our own mind's eye,
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let me leave you with one final example.
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Here's a photograph of a beautiful street
in Stockholm, with two cars.
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The car in the back looks much larger
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than the car in the front.
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However, in reality,
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these cars are the same size,
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but that's not how we see it.
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So does this mean
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that our eyes have gone haywire
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and that our brains are a mess?
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No, it doesn't mean that at all.
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It's just how our eyes work.
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We might see the world in a different way,
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and sometimes that might not
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line up with reality,
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but it doesn't mean
that one of us is right
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and one of us is wrong.
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We all see the world
through our mind's eye,
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but we can teach ourselves
to see it differently.
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So I can think of days
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that have gone horribly wrong for me.
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I'm fed up, I'm grumpy, I'm tired,
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and I'm so behind,
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and there's a big black cloud
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hanging over my head,
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and on days like these,
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it looks like everyone around me
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is down in the dumps too.
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My colleague at work looks annoyed
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when I ask for an extension on a deadline,
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and my friend looks frustrated
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when I show up late for lunch
because a meeting ran long,
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and at the end of the day,
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my husband looks disappointed
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because I'd rather go to bed
than go to the movies.
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And on days like these,
when everybody looks
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upset and angry to me,
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I try to remind myself that there are
other ways of seeing them.
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Perhaps my colleague was confused,
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perhaps my friend was concerned,
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and perhaps my husband
was feeling empathy instead.
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So we all see the world
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through our own mind's eye,
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and on some days, it might look
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like the world is a dangerous
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and challenging and insurmountable place,
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but it doesn't have to look
that way all the time.
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We can teach ourselves
to see it differently,
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and when we find a way to make the world
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look nicer and easier,
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it might actually become so.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
