Selected Reviews
"A fascinating look at little-known illusions that greatly affect our daily lives ... Their readable book offers surprising insights into just how clueless we are about how our minds work and how we experience the world ... Bound to have wide popular appeal."
Library Journal
Full of humor and insight, this book is enlightening and entertaining ... Readers beware: your perception of everyday occurrences will be forever altered."
Publishers Weekly
Through a host of studies, anecdotes, and logic, the authors debunk conventional wisdom about the workings of the mind and what "experts" really know (or don't)."
The authors seek to inspire doubt in the mind's ability - and they absolutely succeed...The Invisible Gorilla is filled with fascinating and revealing experiments that call into question assumptions we have about our mental abilities and those of others...a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand how the mind works."
"Engaging and humane...The invisible gorilla just might teach us to be more humble, understanding and forgiving."
"An exploration of human illusions related to perception, memory and knowledge, with vivid examples of the problems they cause."
"As a thoughtful introduction to a captivating discipline, the book succeeds wonderfully...... readers who heed the admonitions of Chabris and Simons may be rewarded with a clearer view of the world."
"Popular books about our cognitive biases and perceptual limitations are thick on the ground these days, but this one is written by the scientists who conducted one of the most famous recent experiments in the field....It's all highly illuminating."
"With each chapter, the reader's self-awareness grows as previously neglected dimensions of our everyday experience are witnessed...By making us aware of the realm of everyday illusions, The Invisible Gorilla teaches us a lesson of cognitive modesty: think before you leap."
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
"A lucid and engaging presentation of the illusions, or erroneous intuitions, that we hold about our mental capacities...the book manages to present a dizzying array of scientific information in such a concise and engaging way."
"We profoundly overestimate our ability to see things as they are. As the physicist Richard Feynman famously said: The first principle is you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool."
"Chabris and Simons use science and anecdotal evidence so effectively in explaining all this that three days after reading their book I feel confident in saying it has changed my life. I just hope I'm not deluding myself."
"The book is firmly in the Malcolm Gladwell school: it uses anecdotes and social-psychology data to spin the plain world you know into a wonderment of surprising new insights."
"The Invisible Gorilla is a humbling journey into the fallibility of our thinking ... Chabris and Simons deliver a persuasive warning that intuition often fails us ... it should be required for anyone convinced of the truth of such intuitive beliefs as the accuracy of eyewitness accounts of important events, the cause-and-effect relationship between vaccinations and autism, and the role of Mozart's music in making babies smarter."
"The Invisible Gorilla explains in easy-to-understand terms how our brains make mistakes...paying attention and being skeptical of everyday assumptions might lead to better driving - or even derail the next seductive Ponzi scheme."
"a terrific book for anyone who wonders how the mind works, for anyone who has ever talked on a cell phone while driving, or cussed at some careless driver talking on a cell phone, for anyone who wonders about the validity of eyewitness testimony in criminal cases, for anyone who thinks vaccinations cause autism, for anyone who thinks listening to Mozart makes your baby smarter, and for anyone who wonders how half the people watching a video of six kids tossing two basketballs could miss the gorilla that wanders into the action."
"a persuasive, surprising and even amusing book that will have you rethinking the way you think you see the world and wondering just why the heck you've ever let yourself believe you were so much better at functioning than you really are."
Other Praise
Entertaining and illuminating ... We all have incredible confidence in the accuracy of our senses, and the tales they tell us about the world we live in. Through clever experiments and captivating stories, The Invisible Gorilla shows that our confidence is misplaced. This book is a surprising guide to everyday illusions and the trouble they can steer us into.
Dan Ariely - New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational
From courtrooms to bedrooms to boardrooms, this fascinating book shows how psychological illusions bedevil every aspect of our public and private lives. An owner's manual for the human mind!
Daniel Gilbert - Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness
Chabris and Simons' experiments have become classics, and their influence extends well beyond psychology, with implications for our understanding of consciousness and rationality.
Steven Pinker - Steven Pinker, author of How The Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought
A riveting romp across the landscape of our psychological misperceptions. Read this amazing book, but not while you are doing anything else. It will change the way you see the world, and yourself.
Nicholas A. Christakis - Professor of Medicine and Sociology, Harvard University, and co-author of Connected
Too often thinking is depicted in its extremes as the triumph or travesty of intuition. Chabris and Simons present a uniquely nuanced understanding of the power and pitfalls of perception, thought, and memory. This book will delight all who seek depth and insight into the wonder and complexities of cognition.
Jerome Groopman, M.D. - Recanati Professor, Harvard Medical School, and author of How Doctors Think
The illusion of attention is one of the most important, surprising, and least known flaws in human thinking. This lucid book examines it in detail.
Nassim N. Taleb - author of The Black Swan
It isn't often you come across a book that is rigorous but also witty, sound science but also relevant to everyday life -- but here it is! Clever, illuminating, by turns shocking and delightful, this book, if you take it to heart, will change a lot of your bad habits and could even save your life.
Margaret Heffernan - CEO and author of Women On Top
Should be required reading by every judge and jury member in our criminal justice system, along with every battlefield commander, corporate CEO, member of Congress, and, well, you and me ... because the mental illusions so wonderfully explicated in this book can fool every one of us.
Michael Shermer - Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and the author of Why People Believe Weird Things
A breathtaking and insightful journey through the illusions that influence every moment of our lives.
Richard Wiseman - author of Quirkology
Not just witty and engaging but also insightful ... Reading this book won't cure you of all these limitations, but it will at least help you recognize and compensate for them.
Thomas W. Malone - author of The Future of Work and Founder of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
Everyday illusions trick us into thinking that we see -and know more- than we really do, and that we can predict the future when we can't. The Invisible Gorilla teaches us exactly why, and it does so in an incredibly engaging way. Chabris and Simons provide terrific tips on how to cast off our illusions and get things right. Whether you're a driver wanting to steer clear of oncoming motorcycles, a radiologist hoping to spot every tumor, or just an average person curious about how your mind really works, this is a must-read.
Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D. - Distinguished Professor, University of California-Irvine, and author of Memory and Eyewitness Testimony
An eye-opening book. After reading The Invisible Gorilla you will look at yourself -- and the world around you -- differently. Like its authors, the book is both funny and smart, filled with insights into the everyday illusions that we all walk around with. No matter what your job is or what you do in life, you will learn something from this book.
Joseph T. Hallinan - Pulitzer Prize winning author of Why We Make Mistakes
Cognitive scientists Chris Chabris and Dan Simons deliver an entertaining tour of the many ways our brains mislead us every day. The Invisible Gorilla is engaging, accurate, and packed with real-world examples -- some of which made me laugh out loud. Read it to find out why weathermen might make good money managers, and what Homer Simpson can teach you about thinking clearly.
Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D. - co-author of Welcome To Your Brain and former Editor, Nature Neuroscience
Wonderfully refreshing ... The Invisible Gorilla makes us smarter by reminding us how little we know. Through a lively tour of the brain's blind spots, this book will change the way you drive your car, hire your employees and invest your money.
Amanda Ripley - Senior Writer for Time magazine and author of The Unthinkable
The Invisible Gorilla is an eye-opening, thought provoking look at our fallible minds. A must read for lawyers, judges, law enforcement officers, and anyone else who deals with forensics.
Joe Navarro - former FBI agent and best selling author of Louder Than Words