Using Illusions to Succeed in Life

Illusions are everywhere. We've all been shown images that seem to be moving when in fact are not; we've all experienced after-colors; we've all misheard spoken words. Perceptual illusions reveal our brain's attempt of understanding what's out there in the world, and how the systems can be tricked to believe in false information. If you are not a Psychologist, it's hard to imagine how learning about these illusions can be useful. However, I believe that understanding perceptual illusions can potentially help us overcome the "blind spots" in life. The objective of this blog, thus, is to propose practicing taking perceptual phenomenons and generalizing them to a broader set of obstacles that we often fail to acknowledge.

The Moon Illusion: Changing the Apparent Size of Your Problem

Have you ever noticed that the moon sometimes seems weirdly big? The moon illusion describes how we visually perceive the moon as bigger when it's close to the horizon, and smaller when it's high up in the sky. Some psychologists propose that this phenomenon is caused by our brain's evaluation of distance when perceiving the size of an object. When the moon is close to the horizon, it's likely to be surrounded by objects familiar to us, such as houses and trees. As a result, our brain automatically tells us that (1) the moon is close to us (2) the moon's relative size is much larger than the houses and the trees. When the moon is high up in the sky, it's mostly surrounded by emptiness; without items that we can compare and base our perceptual judgment on, our brain considers the moon to be further and smaller.

We are always facing new challenges in life: a new examination to pass, a new project to complete, a new job to fulfill, or a new boss to get along with. Over-estimating or underestimating the size of the problem often results in an inaccurate amount of input. One technique we can learn from the moon illusion is that "the apparent size is relative"; your judgment of how big or challenging a problem depends on what other things you bring to "view" together. If you proactively engage in experiences that have similar characteristics to the challenge you wish to overcome, then the problem wouldn't seem to take up as much space in your mind anymore. For instance, if you find it challenging to maintain the attention span for a cumbersome reading assigned by a class, practice reading something non-academic with a similar length in a similar timeframe. If you find your manager difficult to get along with, spend more time with friends that have a similar personality or mindset. This strategy prompts you to associate the two things as "similar in size"; in addition, engaging with the less-challenging version of the goal "vaccinates" your mind against the original challenge, reducing the perceived size of that challenge as well.

The Halo Effect: "Infect" Challenges with Curiosity and Motivation

Feelings spread in a biased manner, no matter if it's positive of negative. The halo effect describes a positive bias toward something that we perceive as likable. For instance, if we meet a physically attractive person, we might unwittingly assume that person to be kind, intelligent, and friendly. This irrational generalization is like watercolor spreading on a canvas: the color radiates on nearby fibers, creating a ring of "halo" around the spot where the ink was originally dropped. The halo effect is the reason why people might rationalize false claims by charismatic leaders, and why high-end brands use celebrities to endorse their products.

If our attitudes and feelings can be influenced by the halo effect, then we can certainly use this mechanism to motivate ourselves in the face of something we dislike or find challenging. For instance, if you struggle to learn Korean, it might be useful to expose yourself to a Korean-based series or a Korean celebrity that truly fascinates you. If you find yourself unmotivated to make a LinkedIn page, it might be useful to attend networking events at which you would potentially meet inspiring people who you want to exchange LinkedIn contact with. In short, if you can somehow locate and engage with a positive target that is associated with the challenge you wish to resolve, then you can condition your brain into defining the challenge as interesting and meaningful; as time goes by, you might grow more curious and motivated toward resolving the challenge.

Time to Contact: Combating Procrastination and Estimating the Striking Moment

It's always a wonder to see how baseball players accurately coordinate their bodies to successfully bat a ball. Such accuracy requires an estimation of time and speed that's imprinted in their visual acuity and muscle memory. An interesting concept involved is called the size-distance illusion or the looming effect. It's common sense that we perceive something as moving toward us when its size gradually becomes bigger and bigger in our visual field. The fun part is, we always perceive a SUDDEN burst in the rate of increase in size when the object reaches a certain distance from us. In other words, when a ball is thrown at you from far, far away, you might see it staying small for a while; however, it might catch you off guard because it suddenly grows into a massive ball only 0.1 seconds before hitting your face.

When I learned about this perceptual illusion that can trick our estimation of "how fast something is going to arrive", I immediately thought of procrastination. We tend to perceive a deadline as trivial when it's 6 months away, 3 months away, and 1 month away; however, when the deadline is now 1 week away, we suddenly realize how fast the deadline is approaching; it's almost like we can picture the sudden, rapid increase in the "size" of that worry, as demonstrated by the looming effect. Thus, although the speed at which the deadline is approaching us never changes, our subjective experience might say otherwise.

Similar to baseball players, opportunities and challenges are constantly thrown at us; we often set goals, and we are often confronted by deadlines. In all of these scenarios, there is a timeline between which the distance between us and our target becomes closer and closer. Therefore, having the ability to be well-prepared for the "time to contact" is a key to fulfilling our responsibilities in a timely fashion. By going through countless practices, baseball players can accurately prepare their body and be not fooled by the looming effect: their visual estimation and muscle memory have undergone so many trials of training that they are prepared before the sudden speed change of the ball's increase in size. Thus, perhaps we can also train the "muscles" of our mind to acquire the skill of estimating and reacting to an approaching target. There are two ways that we can achieve this:

1. If the date of the deadline is set (e.g., when a project is due), formulate a clear timeline of when to do what. If the timeline is a blur in our minds, we might be caught off-guard by the looming effect.

2. Learn to recognize the "signs" that help you estimate the "speed" and the "distance" that a target is associated with. Sometimes opportunity pops up when least expected. For instance, you might suddenly bump into a potential client at a casual dinner, but find yourself unprepared to encapsulate your ideas in a casual manner. In response to that experience, you can formulate an elevator pitch and briefly rehearse it in your mind the night / a few hours before showing up to similar events in the future. This trains the reflex of your "mind muscles" to precisely react when opportunity approaches.

Concluding Thoughts

When we talk about perceptual illusions in Psychology, our topics are almost always framed in terms of the direct interactions between physical mechanisms (such as light and sound) and our sensory systems (such as the visual and the hearing system). However, as I demonstrated in the three phenomena, there are actually many interesting similarities between those perceptual illusions and patterns of behaviors (such as procrastination) in our daily life. Is it possible that those mechanisms are the underlying forces that generate those behaviors? While this question is yet to be explored by future research, if we can pay closer attention to how illusions interact with our life, perhaps we can use them as instruments to create positive realities.