Petter Johansson: Do you really know why you do what you do?
Petter Johansson: Ziur al dakizu zergatik egiten duzun egiten duzuna?
Petter Johansson and his research group study self-knowledge and attitude change using methods ranging from questionnaires to close-up card magic. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
the rich should pay more in taxes?
ordaindu behar dutela zergatan?
oraingo bikotekidea?
vote for Donald Trump?
jendek Donald Trump-en alde?
zuten erabaki hau?
of question all the time,
horrelako galderak,
we expect ourselves to know the answer,
erantzuteko gai izan nahi dugu,
zergatik egin ditugun?
George Clooney to Tom Hanks,
nahiago duzula esatean,
ardura dela eta,
and genuinely believe
that drives your choice,
like something is missing.
kontua ez dago erabat argi.
the nature of subjectivity,
that people are wrong about themselves.
duen ustea okerra dela frogatzea.
we've been trying to solve in our lab.
ibili gara laborategian.
what people say about themselves,
about their own mind is hard.
norberaren buruaren gaian.
the illusion of a free choice.
dute hautu aske baten irudipena.
esaten dizutenean,
is that your choice is no longer free.
dagoeneko ez dela askea.
brainstorming sessions
bilera sorta bat antolatu
the outcome of people's choices.
metodo bat sortzeko.
when people are wrong about themselves,
zuten ustean oker zeudela
haiek ez jabetu arren.
a short movie showing this manipulation.
film labur bat erakutsiko dizuet.
How did they react, and what did they say?
Oraintxe ikusiko dugu.
if you can spot the magic going on.
antzematen duzuen.
they don't know what's going on.
da, ez dakite zer gertatzen ari den.
Hi, my name's Petter.
Kaixo, Petter naiz.
pictures like this.
erakutsiko dizkizut
which one you find more attractive.
aukeratu beharko duzu.
I will ask you why you prefer that face.
nahiago duzun galdetuko dizut.
Becka: Yeah.
Becka: Bai.
hori gehiago?
I like the way it's lit and looks.
eta itxura gustatu zaizkit.
Hona hemen trikimailua.
1. emakumea: Hauxe.
of their choice.
kontrakoa ematen diet.
innocent than the other guy.
and contour of the nose and face.
sudurraren eta aurpegiaren ingerada ere.
to me, and her haircut.
Ileagatik ere bai.
he looks a little bit like the Hobbit.
Hobbit-aren antza pixka bat du.
of the experiment?
funtzionamendua azaltzen diedanean?
ask a few questions.
batzuk egingo dizkizut.
of this experiment, was it easy or hard?
erraza ala zaila?
the pictures three times.
Man: No.
Gizona: Ez.
but I actually gave you the opposite.
baina bestea eman dizut.
OK, when you --
my attention span was.
during the experiment
esperimentuan zehar, tarteka,
but then I gave you the other one.
bestea eman dizut.
figured out now,
two cards in each hand,
into the black surface on the table.
ikusezin bihurtzen dela.
of the participants detect these tries.
hautematen du trikimailua.
we explain what's going on,
azaltzen diedanean,
to believe the trick has been made.
ez dute sinesten trikimailua egin diedanik.
is quite robust and a genuine effect.
eta indarra frogatzen ditu.
in self-knowledge, as I am,
baduzu, nik bezala,
when they explained these choices?
in these experiments.
what they say in a manipulated trial
a normal choice they've made
just as specific,
with the same level of certainty.
and a manipulated choice,
agian etengabe aitzakiak
ondoriozta genezake.
with the actual faces.
aurpegiekin konparatzeko.
he preferred the girl to the left,
ezkerreko neska nahiago zuen,
his choice like this.
at the bar than the other one.
nintzaioke berari besteari baino.
the girl on the left to begin with,
ezkerreko neska,
sitting on the girl on the right.
of a post hoc construction.
adibide argia dugu.
the choice afterwards.
justifikatu zuen.
that our choices have been changed,
detektatzen ez badugu,
to explain them in another way.
saiatuko garela frogatzen du.
often come to prefer the alternative,
they had previously rejected.
hautatuko lukete.
we call "choice blindness."
a number of different studies --
and even reasoning problems.
eta arrazoimen-problemak aztertu ditugu.
to more complex, more meaningful choices?
ere aplika al dakieke?
moral and political issues.
esate baterako.
it needs a little bit of a background.
testuinguru pixka bat behar du.
and a right-wing coalition.
ezkerrekoa eta eskuinekoa.
between the parties within each coalition,
alderdi batetik bestera mugi daitezke,
between the coalitions.
bestera aldatzea.
"an election compass"
of dividing issues
zenbait arazo polemikoren zerrenda,
should be increased
igo beharko litzatekeen,
between the two parents
beharko litzatekeen.
propioa sortu genuen.
to do a quick political survey.
parte hartzeko eskatu genion.
their voting intention
to answer 12 of these questions.
erantzuteko eskatzen genien.
tax on gas should be increased?
gaineko zerga igo beharko litzatekeela?"
txantiloi bat erabiliz
to tally their overall score.
one, two, three, four
bat, bi, hiru, lau, bost
scores to the left,
puntu lortuz gero,
fill in their voting intention once more.
idazteko eskatzen genien.
also a trick involved.
zegoen tartean.
about their voting intention
going in the opposite direction.
kontrako erantzunak idatzi
of the participant's own answer.
itsasten genuen.
about each of the questions:
arrazoitzeko eskatzen genien:
their overall score.
their voting intention again.
adierazten zuten berriro ere.
manipulazio hauek
manipulations are detected.
zituztela ikusi genuen.
in the sense that they realize,
the question the first time I read it.
erantzuna aldatu dezaket?"
manipulations were changed,
of the participants' answers
lortu genuen, beren profilak
their overall profile.
ezkerrera lekualdatuz.
they are asked to motivate their choices?
eskatzen dizkiegunean?
interesting verbal reports
aurpegien esperimentuan baino
and I'll read it to you.
eman zituen:
of email and internet traffic
Interneta eta email-ak kontrolatzea
international crime and terrorism."
delitu eta terrorismoari aurre egiteko.
with this statement." "Yes."
"Bai."
at international crime and terrorism,
terrorismoari aurka egitea zaila denez,
those kinds of tools."
beharrezkoa dela uste dut."
from the newspaper in the morning.
bateko argudio bat datorkio burura:
listen to mobile phones from prison,
kontrolatzen dituztela,
his crimes from inside.
delitu gehiagorik ez antolatzeko.
that we have so little power
eskuhartzerik ez izatea
the possibility to do so."
back and forth in the end:
to everything I do,
guztira sarbidea izatea,
it's worth it in the long run."
a choice blindness experiment,
jakingo ez bazenu,
of that person.
with the voting intention?
boto asmoarekin?
clearly affected by the questionnaire.
izan duela ikusi dugu.
or from right to left.
alderantziz, mugitu direnak.
that go from clear voting intention
to clear voting intention.
boto asmo garbira igaro dira.
staying uncertain throughout.
mantendu du aurretik eta ondoren.
at what the polling institutes say
considered uncertain.
jende kopurua
shifting their attitudes.
that you are not allowed to use this
hau ezin dela erabili
to change people's votes
opportunity to change back
that if you can get people
in a conversation with themselves,
eta hausnartzera bultzatzen baduzu
change their views.
frogatzen du.
is actually self-interpretation.
bat autointerpretazioa da.
as much sense of it as possible
bilatzen saiatzen naiz
and with such ease
egiten dugunez,
when we answer why.
bagenekizkiela uste dugu.
when we try to understand other people.
akatsak egiten ditugun bezalaxe.
the question "why"
"zergatik?" galdetzerakoan.
is that, if you asked them,
or this relationship?" --
edo bikotekide honekin?"
is that you actually create an attitude
before you asked the question.
in your professional life, as well,
garrantzitsua da, noski,
and then you ask people,
galdetzean,
asking a politician,
galdetzean,
why a certain decision was made.
from a positive direction,
a little bit more flexible than we think.
frogatu du.
harrian zizelkatuta.
the minds of others,
alda ditzakegu
to engage with the issue
since starting with this research --
ikerketa hau hasi nuenetik
we've always had the rule
bat ezarri dugu:
I liked something a year ago,
to stay consistent
behar horri uko egitea
relational life so mush easier to live.
askoz errazagoa bihurtzen du.
as you think you do.
bezain ondo.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Petter Johansson - Experimental psychologistPetter Johansson and his research group study self-knowledge and attitude change using methods ranging from questionnaires to close-up card magic.
Why you should listen
Petter Johansson is an associate professor in cognitive science, and together with Lars Hall he runs the Choice Blindness Lab at Lund University in Sweden.
The main theme of Johansson's research is self-knowledge: How much do we know about ourselves, and how do we come to acquire this knowledge? To study these questions, he and his collaborators have developed an experimental paradigm known as "choice blindness." The methodological twist in these experiments is to use magic tricks to manipulate the outcome of people's choices -- and then measure to what extent and in what ways people react to these changes. The general finding is that participants often fail to detect when they receive the opposite of their choice, and when asked to explain, they readily construct and confabulate answers motivating a choice they only believe they intended to make. The effect has been demonstrated in choice experiments on topics such as facial attractiveness, consumer choice and moral and political decision making.
Petter Johansson | Speaker | TED.com