Did You Spot the Gorilla?
by Richard Wiseman
Arrow $101
The title comes from an experiment on the psychology of vision. Volunteers are asked to watch a film of six basketball players. Three wear white
T-shirts and three wear black. Volunteers must count the number of times the players in white pass the basketball. Halfway through the film, a man dressed as a gorilla slowly walks on, beats his chest and walks off. Asked if they saw anything unusual, few viewers reported spotting the gorilla. Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor and member of the Magic Circle, uses the gorilla as a metaphor for the psychological blind spots that cause us to miss opportunities. In this slim book, he uses visual tricks to make the point again, but offers few practical suggestions, and fails to analyse his theory in depth.