An interesting trick of the mind: Wishful seeing
Wishful seeing is the phenomenon in which a person’s internal state influences their visual perception. People have the tendency to believe that they perceive the world for what it is, but research suggests otherwise.
Wishful seeing and self-perception
People’s motivational states — their wishes and preferences — influence their processing of visual stimuli
Wishful seeing can occur on a daily basis, even when looking at common objects or images, like ourselves. People get a lot of practice perceiving their own image. In fact, a British survey found that men look at themselves on average 27 times a day and women 34 times a day.
When we wake up in the morning, stand waiting for an elevator, or are trapped at a red light, we often look in the mirror and are met with the reflection of our own image. Even with repeated exposure to our own face, wishes influence how we see ourselves. Indeed, studies confirm that people tend to see themselves as more attractive than they actually are.
Fears and desires may influence whether we see ourselves as thin or fat, whether we see a mark on the skin as just a mole or a sign of something worse.
To investigate wishful seeing researchers used computer software to morph photographs of participants’ faces with those of beautiful models or ugly prototypes. In so doing, they created several more and less attractive renditions of the original, placed all of the images in a random line-up, and simply asked participants to select which of the images was their actual face. By and large, people identified an attractively enhanced version as themselves more often than they did any other version including the actual one.
Wishful seeing and self esteem
Moreover, people with high self-esteem, as measured by implicit non-conscious tests, tended to identify even more flattering photographs as themselves compared to people with relatively low self-esteem. People, especially those with high self-esteem, wish to think of themselves in a positive light, and as a result may come to perceive themselves as more attractive than they actually are.
Mechanisms of the wishful seeing
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Because this line of work is still developing, researchers are still exploring what mechanisms contribute to wishful seeing.
One possible psychological mechanism underlying wishful seeing involves perceptual sets. Perceptual sets are mental states or associations that are activated before an object comes into view. These activated associates subtly guide the visual system during processing once the item is detected.
A second possible psychological mechanism underlying wish[1]ful seeing involves attention. For instance, positive feelings associated with approach cause the narrowing of cognitive and visual attention. When pictures of desirable foods (e.g., delicious desserts) appear in the centre of a computer screen, observers’ attention narrows, leading them to better recognize words presented in the centre of the screen than words presented at the periphery.
It is possible that attention affects perceptual representations of the environment. Narrowly attending to a target distorts perception of space, limiting our access to depth cues, which are necessary for accurately coding distance.
Implications
As seen above wishful seeing is the phenomenon in which our internal states and motivation influence our visual perception.
We need to be mindful that we have the tendency to believe that how we perceive the world for what it is, but research suggests otherwise.
Fears and desires may influence whether we see ourselves as thin or fat, whether we see a mark on the skin as just a mole or a sign of something worse.
If our own perceptions can be influenced by things, we don’t know about it’s sometimes good to check with other people to see if they’re seeing the same thing or if they have a different take on the situation.
References
https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/wishful-seeing
http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/22/1/33
Long, R. How wishful seeing is not like wishful thinking. Philos Stud 175, 1401–1421 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-0917-2
