15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Prof. Dan Ariely Lecture 3: Perception (a dash “-“ indicates student responses) Everyone in the last 4 rows move up. Nobody is in the 2nd row, somebody sit in the second row Why do they make lecture halls with the first 2 rows? Nobody ever uses them… [as people come in late, the Professor individually tells them and gestures to them to sit up in the first few rows.] Syllabus The topic is Managerial Psychology, if you haven’t figured it out yet... ☺ How many people did the experiment on Friday? Who was in the last group? The first group was happy, the middle group was in the middle, the last group was unhappy. We adjusted to have them paid the least in the last group. Don’t expect to earn $70 in future experiments, that was a fluke. On average in future experiments, it will be more like $10. In a class of any size, some students will do better than others. There will be some in every possible location in the range. Measurement grades are a statistical estimate of your ability – be happy with what you get. On Wednesdays, we will mostly have lectures in the big class. Sometimes you will meet with your TA, like last week. There are three books to read this term: Statistics, the class reader, and How We Know What Isn’t So. You are in charge of the reading and it will all be covered in the exams. The reading is not that hard, I will not reinterpret the material here. It is helpful to work in groups on the readings. Your projects will be presented in class. You will get more cheers from your fellow students based on the quality of your work. At MIT, there is a tendency to start an assignment 2 days before it is due. If you start 2 days before the exam, there is no way you’ll do well. (you are not allowed to sit in the last 3 rows – come forward) Visual Illusions Hermann GridIntersections slightly grey – how can that be? What’s happening here? -Optical Illusion Not an optical illusion, a visual illusion. -Something about your eye. What about your eye? -neighboring receptor cells… Close, your visual system averages brightness. The area is small in the center, but your eye is averaging over a larger area in your peripheral vision. -Why is there not even more grey on the sides? Proximity… How are you all with colors? Have you gone over colors? What is this color? [points to various colors on the slide, a cube made of smaller, colored cubes] These two are actually the same color [one in shadow, one in light]. There are always some people who don’t trust me, so I brought a hard copy. [Passes it to skeptics] It looks different in the picture, but it is exactly the same color. Why? -we automatically adjust for shadow Yes, we want things to remain constant – we want to preserve things. In the image, our mind thinks how we could change it, to interpret the world, though it is not a real change in the object. Let’s look at another learned change [has someone read several sets of words, timing her. First, black list of colors – 9s. Next, colored list of colors – 9s. Third, same list, but say the colors, not the words – 10s. Last, set of words that do not match the colors, saying the actual colors – did not finish, it was very slow and she stopped] Suddenly the reading got very slow. It looked like you were agonizing. -It was confusing because of the colors. The only time it was slow was when the color and the name were different. She is a good reader. What happened? -Red came into her mind automatically, we are used to reading. -She had to slow down to get what she wanted to produce – color If you don’t speak English, you would be much better at naming the colors. There is a word-letter effect. Take the word work v. the letter k. You would recognize the k much faster as part of a word. We have holistic perception. Another example: we can mix up letters as long as the first and last letter remain the same. It is still readable. You can still read this passage easily (slide). 15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Lecture 3 Prof. Dan Ariely Page 2 of 7Ball passing example: how many times does the white team pass the ball to each other? We should all be able to get the same number. It is a minimal sign of intelligence! (video clip) How many times? [answers range from 14 to 18.] That’s the biggest variance I’ve had in a class. I purposely tried to hype you up to want to concentrate on the number. Result – something can pass through the center of our vision and we are able to ignore it. If we are attentive to the white things, we filter out the black. If we are attentive to what Bush does well, we may not see anything else… The “mistakes” in our vision are designed for a purpose. Sometimes we are supposed to make mistakes. What does this basic perceptual feature tell us about how people think, etc? There is another test where someone stops to ask a person for directions. While the person is in the middle of explaining, a couple of construction workers walks between them with a big board and the person getting directions is replaced, but with similar clothing. Only 50 percent of the people giving the directions noticed it was a different person. Relative Perception Imagine this picture is ice cream (see slide). Which people would think they were getting more ice cream? -Store B more generous, getting a better deal -Store A the people would be more likely to finish all the ice cream, and maybe ask for a refill. -more profitable for store A? Who could charge more money? -Store B In store B, people leave more on their plate, if they are the kind to do that. Your perception is relative to a concept. It is a placebo effect in some way, dependent on what you understand and perceive. Would it be better to use big plates or small plates if you owned a restaurant? -seems more upscale if you use big plates, a fancier restaurant. -there’s a restaurant that serves wings in a container that looks big, but it’s not as much food as it seems it will be. 15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Lecture 3 Prof. Dan Ariely Page 3 of 7How much difference would there need to be between two weights for you to tell for sure which is heavier? Say, using one of these black paper clips? -three So, 1g to 3g to detect a difference How about if you had 1kg? -maybe a ¼ kg difference That’s a lot bigger. -It is proportional, it