Daniel Simons

The Invisible Gorilla

Daniel Simons is perhaps best known for a study he conducted with his colleague Christopher Chabris in which half of their subjects failed to see a person in a gorilla suit walking through a scene — they were so focused on what they were doing that they missed the obvious. Simons is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology where he studies how our intuition about the workings of our own minds can lead us astray.

In his book The Invisible Gorilla, also written with Chabris, he discuss why we fail to see, remember, or notice important things in our world, from companies that spend millions to launch a product that their own analysis showed was doomed to fail, to a policeman who runs right past a violent street fight without noticing it. Simons has won many awards for his research and teaching, including the 2004 Ig-Nobel Prize for research that makes people laugh and then makes them think.  With his book as well as his speaking, videos, and research, he has helped people understand how the limits of our minds affect all aspects of our lives. “A lesson in humility,” concluded The New York Times.