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Did You Spot the Gorilla?
How to Recognise the Hidden Opportunities in Your Life
- Author: Richard Wiseman
- Category: Non-fiction
- Publisher: Century Arrow
- Pub date: 5 August 2004
- Length: 112 pages
About Did You Spot the Gorilla?
From the bestselling author of THE LUCK FACTOR (sold in over 20 territories worldwide) comes another book to revolutionize and enhance our lives.
Following in the footsteps of the bestselling WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? and FISH!, DID YOU SPOT THE GORILLA? reveals how to be lucky in business by noticing the vitally important, but hidden, opportunities that surround each and every one of us.
In a series of ground-breaking psychological experiments, people watched a 30-second film containing six players passing a basketball between one another. After just a few seconds, a man dressed as a gorilla slowly walked into frame, sauntered through the players, beat his chest at the camera and then walked off.
Unbelievably, almost none of the people watching the film noticed the gorilla.
Exactly the same psychological mechanisms that cause people to miss the gorilla also make them miss unexpected, but vitally important, opportunities in their professional and personal lives. This book outlines the scientific evidence and thinking behind this remarkable new phenomenon, and reveals how people can maximize their chances of noticing unexpected opportunities and events.
A mixture of cutting-edge science, striking demonstrations and compelling anecdotes, this book shows people how to spot their own gorillas and what to do when they see one.
About the Author
Richard Wiseman was born in 1966 and began his working life as an award-winning professional magician, quickly becoming one of the youngest-ever members of The Magic Circle. Having obtained a first-class honours degree in psychology from University College London (1985–1988) and a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh (1988–1992), he was awarded the prestigious Perrott Warrick Fellowship from Trinity College, Cambridge; and now heads a 30-strong research unit based within the Department of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire.
In 2002 he was appointed the country’s first Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology, and he is the most cited psychologist now working in Britain. Together, Richard’s last two books, QUIRKOLOGY and 59 SECONDS, have translated into thirty languages and have sold approximately 500,000 copies worldwide.