You’d think someone in a gorilla suit would be hard to miss. Yet in 1999, Harvard researchers Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris discovered otherwise, as explained in a paper they co-authored for the journal Perception.
As part of an experiment, they filmed one team of people in white shirts and one team in black shirts, passing two basketballs back and forth in an elevator lobby. Observers watched the video of the teams, and were asked to count the number of passes made by one of the teams. Partway through the video, a woman in a gorilla suit walks right through the middle of the action.
After viewing the video, about half of the observers failed to notice the gorilla. In a similar video shown to a different set of observers, the gorilla stops in between the basketball players, looks at the camera, pounds her chest, and walks off. Again, 50% the observers miss the gorilla. After being told about the gorilla and after seeing the video again, the observers typically responded with “I missed that?!”
Seems crazy, right? But how often have we turned the house upside down looking for keys clearly visible on the kitchen counter? Or searched for someone in a crowd and kept looking, even after looking right at them as they waved at us?
Just because our eyes are open, does not mean we are paying attention. Just as the observers in the Harvard experiment diligently counted passes yet overlooked a gorilla in their midst, we all neglect the seemingly obvious when our attention is on something else. If that preoccupation constantly focuses on our needs, our wants and our desires, we ignore important situations or people passing right through our midst.
In the final judgment described in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus divides the righteous from the cursed. The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned all passed in front of both sets of people during their lifetimes, but apparently the cursed failed to notice. Their response in Verse 44 of “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” sounds a lot like “I missed that?!”
Who is right in front of you that needs your help and attention? Look closely, since they are probably not wearing a gorilla suit to get noticed.
You can test your own perceptiveness with the original gorilla video and others at Charbis and Simons’ website www.theinvisiblegorilla.com.