ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Emily Balcetis - Psychologist
Social psychologist Emily Balcetis explores perception, motivation, goal-setting and decision-making from conscious and nonconscious levels.

Why you should listen

The world around us often seems insurmountable, with all the cards stacked against us -- but as social psychologist Emily Balcetis seeks to show, it doesn't have to be that way. Through her research at New York University she explores how small differences in perception, whether conscious or nonconscious, can have potentially major consequences. For example, in a series of studies conducted in 2009 Balcetis helped show that people who saw Barack Obama as lighter skinned tended to report voting for him in the 2008 presidential election -- and vice versa.

Her current work focuses on how video evidence can bias jury members differently and how our vision can work against us when it comes to effective exercise. Balcetis' goal is to show that through our awareness of these biases, we can also overcome them, for an ever so slightly less daunting world.

More profile about the speaker
Emily Balcetis | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxNewYork

Emily Balcetis: Why some people find exercise harder than others

Filmed:
3,770,270 views

Why do some people struggle more than others to keep off the pounds? Social psychologist Emily Balcetis shows research that addresses one of the many factors: our vision. In an informative talk, she shows how when it comes to fitness, some people quite literally see the world differently -- and offers a surprisingly simple solution to overcome these differences.
- Psychologist
Social psychologist Emily Balcetis explores perception, motivation, goal-setting and decision-making from conscious and nonconscious levels. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Vision is the most important
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and prioritized sense that we have.
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We are constantly looking
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at the world around us,
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and quickly we identify and make sense
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of what it is that we see.
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Let's just start with an example
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of that very fact.
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I'm going to show you
a photograph of a person,
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just for a second or two,
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and I'd like for you to identify
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what emotion is on his face.
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Ready?
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Here you go. Go with your gut reaction.
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Okay. What did you see?
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Well, we actually surveyed
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over 120 individuals,
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and the results were mixed.
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People did not agree
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on what emotion they saw on his face.
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Maybe you saw discomfort.
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That was the most frequent response
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that we received.
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But if you asked the person on your left,
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they might have said regret or skepticism,
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and if you asked somebody on your right,
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they might have said
something entirely different,
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like hope or empathy.
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So we are all looking
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at the very same face again.
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We might see something
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entirely different,
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because perception is subjective.
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What we think we see
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is actually filtered
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through our own mind's eye.
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Of course, there are many other examples
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of how we see the world
through own mind's eye.
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I'm going to give you just a few.
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So dieters, for instance,
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see apples as larger
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than people who are not counting calories.
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Softball players see the ball as smaller
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if they've just come out of a slump,
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compared to people who
had a hot night at the plate.
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And actually, our political beliefs also
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can affect the way we see other people,
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including politicians.
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So my research team and I
decided to test this question.
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In 2008, Barack Obama
was running for president
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for the very first time,
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and we surveyed hundreds of Americans
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one month before the election.
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What we found in this survey
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was that some people, some Americans,
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think photographs like these
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best reflect how Obama really looks.
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Of these people, 75 percent
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voted for Obama in the actual election.
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Other people, though,
thought photographs like these
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best reflect how Obama really looks.
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89 percent of these people
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voted for McCain.
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We presented many photographs of Obama
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one at a time,
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so people did not realize
that what we were changing
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from one photograph to the next
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was whether we had artificially lightened
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or darkened his skin tone.
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So how is that possible?
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How could it be that
when I look at a person,
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an object, or an event,
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I see something very different
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than somebody else does?
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Well, the reasons are many,
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but one reason requires that we understand
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a little bit more about how our eyes work.
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So vision scientists know
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that the amount of information
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that we can see
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at any given point in time,
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what we can focus on,
is actually relatively small.
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What we can see with great sharpness
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and clarity and accuracy
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is the equivalent
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of the surface area of our thumb
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on our outstretched arm.
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Everything else around that is blurry,
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rendering much of what is presented
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to our eyes as ambiguous.
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But we have to clarify
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and make sense of what it is that we see,
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and it's our mind that
helps us fill in that gap.
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As a result, perception
is a subjective experience,
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and that's how we end up seeing
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through our own mind's eye.
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So, I'm a social psychologist,
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and it's questions like these
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that really intrigue me.
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I am fascinated by those times
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when people do not see eye to eye.
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Why is it that somebody might
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literally see the glass as half full,
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and somebody literally sees it
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as half empty?
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What is it about what one person
is thinking and feeling
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that leads them to see the world
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in an entirely different way?
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And does that even matter?
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So to begin to tackle these questions,
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my research team and I
decided to delve deeply
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into an issue that has received
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international attention:
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our health and fitness.
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Across the world,
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people are struggling
to manage their weight,
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and there is a variety of strategies
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that we have to help us
keep the pounds off.
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For instance, we set
the best of intentions
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to exercise after the holidays,
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but actually, the majority of Americans
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find that their New Year's resolutions
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are broken by Valentine's Day.
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We talk to ourselves
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in very encouraging ways,
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telling ourselves this is our year
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to get back into shape,
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but that is not enough to bring us back
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to our ideal weight.
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So why?
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Of course, there is no simple answer,
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but one reason, I argue,
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is that our mind's eye
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might work against us.
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Some people may literally see exercise
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as more difficult,
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and some people might literally
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see exercise as easier.
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So, as a first step
to testing these questions,
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we gathered objective measurements
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of individuals' physical fitness.
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We measured the
circumference of their waist,
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compared to the
circumference of their hips.
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A higher waist-to-hip ratio
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is an indicator of being
less physically fit
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than a lower waist-to-hip ratio.
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After gathering these measurements,
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we told our participants that
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they would walk to a finish line
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while carrying extra weight
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in a sort of race.
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But before they did that,
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we asked them to estimate the distance
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to the finish line.
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We thought that the physical
states of their body
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might change how
they perceived the distance.
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So what did we find?
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Well, waist-to-hip ratio
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predicted perceptions of distance.
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People who were out of shape and unfit
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actually saw the distance
to the finish line
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as significantly greater
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than people who were in better shape.
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People's states of their own body
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changed how they
perceived the environment.
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But so too can our mind.
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In fact, our bodies and our minds
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work in tandem
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to change how we see the world around us.
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That led us to think that maybe people
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with strong motivations
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and strong goals to exercise
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might actually see
the finish line as closer
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than people who have weaker motivations.
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So to test whether motivations
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affect our perceptual
experiences in this way,
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we conducted a second study.
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Again, we gathered objective measurements
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of people's physical fitness,
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measuring the circumference of their waist
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and the circumference of their hips,
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and we had them do a
few other tests of fitness.
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Based on feedback that we gave them,
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some of our participants told us
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they're not motivated
to exercise any more.
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They felt like they already
met their fitness goals
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and they weren't going
to do anything else.
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These people were not motivated.
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Other people, though,
based on our feedback,
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told us they were highly
motivated to exercise.
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They had a strong goal
to make it to the finish line.
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But again, before we had them
walk to the finish line,
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we had them estimate the distance.
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How far away was the finish line?
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And again, like the previous study,
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we found that waist-to-hip ratio
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predicted perceptions of distance.
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Unfit individuals saw
the distance as farther,
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saw the finish line as farther away,
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than people who were in better shape.
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Importantly, though, this only happened
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for people who were not motivated
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to exercise.
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On the other hand,
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people who were highly
motivated to exercise
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saw the distance as short.
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Even the most out of shape individuals
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saw the finish line
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as just as close,
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if not slightly closer,
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than people who were in better shape.
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So our bodies can change
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how far away that finish line looks,
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but people who had committed
to a manageable goal
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that they could accomplish
in the near future
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and who believed that they were capable
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of meeting that goal
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actually saw the exercise as easier.
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That led us to wonder,
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is there a strategy that we could use
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and teach people that would help
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change their perceptions of the distance,
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help them make exercise look easier?
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So we turned to
the vision science literature
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to figure out what should we do,
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and based on what we read,
we came up with a strategy
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that we called, "Keep
your eyes on the prize."
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So this is not the slogan
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from an inspirational poster.
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It's an actual directive
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for how to look around your environment.
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People that we trained in this strategy,
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we told them to focus
their attention on the finish line,
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to avoid looking around,
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to imagine a spotlight
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was shining on that goal,
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and that everything around it was blurry
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and perhaps difficult to see.
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09:10
We thought that this strategy
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would help make the exercise look easier.
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We compared this group
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to a baseline group.
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To this group we said,
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just look around the environment
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as you naturally would.
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09:22
You will notice the finish line,
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but you might also notice
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the garbage can off to the right,
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or the people and the
lamp post off to the left.
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09:29
We thought that people
who used this strategy
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would see the distance as farther.
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09:34
So what did we find?
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09:36
When we had them estimate the distance,
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was this strategy successful
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for changing their perceptual experience?
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Yes.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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saw the finish line as 30 percent closer
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than people who looked around
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as they naturally would.
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We thought this was great.
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We were really excited because it meant
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that this strategy helped make
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the exercise look easier,
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but the big question was,
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could this help make exercise
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actually better?
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Could it improve the quality
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of exercise as well?
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So next, we told our participants,
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you are going to walk to the finish line
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while wearing extra weight.
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We added weights to their ankles
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that amounted to 15 percent
of their body weight.
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We told them to lift their knees up high
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and walk to the finish line quickly.
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We designed this exercise in particular
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to be moderately challenging
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but not impossible,
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like most exercises
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that actually improve our fitness.
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So the big question, then:
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Did keeping your eyes on the prize
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and narrowly focusing on the finish line
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change their experience of the exercise?
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It did.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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told us afterward that it required
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17 percent less exertion
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for them to do this exercise
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than people who looked around naturally.
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It changed their subjective experience
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of the exercise.
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It also changed the objective nature
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of their exercise.
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People who kept their eyes on the prize
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actually moved 23 percent faster
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than people who looked around naturally.
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To put that in perspective,
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a 23 percent increase
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is like trading in your
1980 Chevy Citation
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for a 1980 Chevrolet Corvette.
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We were so excited by this,
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because this meant that a strategy
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that costs nothing,
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11:29
that is easy for people to use,
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regardless of whether they're in shape
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or struggling to get there,
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had a big effect.
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Keeping your eyes on the prize
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made the exercise look and feel easier
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even when people were working harder
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11:44
because they were moving faster.
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Now, I know there's more to good health
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than walking a little bit faster,
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11:51
but keeping your eyes on the prize
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might be one additional strategy
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that you can use to help promote
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a healthy lifestyle.
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If you're not convinced yet
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that we all see the world
through our own mind's eye,
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let me leave you with one final example.
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Here's a photograph of a beautiful
street in Stockholm, with two cars.
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The car in the back looks much larger
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12:11
than the car in the front.
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However, in reality,
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these cars are the same size,
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12:16
but that's not how we see it.
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So does this mean that
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our eyes have gone haywire
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and that our brains are a mess?
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No, it doesn't mean that at all.
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It's just how our eyes work.
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12:30
We might see the world in a different way,
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12:33
and sometimes that might not
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line up with reality,
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but it doesn't mean
that one of us is right
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and one of us is wrong.
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12:41
We all see the world
through our mind's eye,
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12:43
but we can teach ourselves
to see it differently.
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12:46
So I can think of days
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12:48
that have gone horribly wrong for me.
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I'm fed up, I'm grumpy, I'm tired,
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12:52
and I'm so behind,
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12:54
and there's a big black cloud
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hanging over my head,
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and on days like these,
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12:59
it looks like everyone around me
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13:01
is down in the dumps too.
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13:03
My colleague at work looks annoyed
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13:05
when I ask for an extension on a deadline,
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13:07
and my friend looks frustrated
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13:09
when I show up late for lunch
because a meeting ran long,
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13:12
and at the end of the day,
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13:14
my husband looks disappointed
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13:16
because I'd rather go to
bed than go to the movies.
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13:18
And on days like these,
when everybody looks
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13:21
upset and angry to me,
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13:23
I try to remind myself that there
are other ways of seeing them.
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Perhaps my colleague was confused,
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13:30
perhaps my friend was concerned,
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13:32
and perhaps my husband was
feeling empathy instead.
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13:35
So we all see the world
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13:37
through our own mind's eye,
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13:39
and on some days, it might look
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13:41
like the world is a dangerous
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13:43
and challenging and insurmountable place,
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2537
13:45
but it doesn't have to look
that way all the time.
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We can teach ourselves
to see it differently,
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13:50
and when we find a way to make the world
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13:53
look nicer and easier,
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13:55
it might actually become so.
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Thank you.
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13:59
(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Emily Balcetis - Psychologist
Social psychologist Emily Balcetis explores perception, motivation, goal-setting and decision-making from conscious and nonconscious levels.

Why you should listen

The world around us often seems insurmountable, with all the cards stacked against us -- but as social psychologist Emily Balcetis seeks to show, it doesn't have to be that way. Through her research at New York University she explores how small differences in perception, whether conscious or nonconscious, can have potentially major consequences. For example, in a series of studies conducted in 2009 Balcetis helped show that people who saw Barack Obama as lighter skinned tended to report voting for him in the 2008 presidential election -- and vice versa.

Her current work focuses on how video evidence can bias jury members differently and how our vision can work against us when it comes to effective exercise. Balcetis' goal is to show that through our awareness of these biases, we can also overcome them, for an ever so slightly less daunting world.

More profile about the speaker
Emily Balcetis | Speaker | TED.com