Our Perception Really IS Our Reality

Flubbing a field goal kick doesn’t just bruise your ego — new research shows it may actually change how your brain sees the goal posts. In a study of 23 non-football athletes who each kicked 10 field goals, researchers found that players’ performance directly affected their perception of the size of the goal: After a series of missed kicks, athletes perceived the post to be taller and more narrow than before, while successful kicks made the post appear larger-than-life.

Professional athletes have long claimed that their perception changes when they’re playing well — they start hitting baseballs as large as grapefruits, or aiming at golf holes the size of a bucket — but many scientists have been slow to accept that performance can alter visual perception.

Although many scientists are surprised, Witt says subjective perception is a concept most of us are already familiar with. For example, she said, when running around a track, you may know logically that the long, straight stretch is always a constant 100 meters — but by the end of a run, those same 100 meters appear to stretch on forever.

The researchers used a small, adjustable replica of a goal post to test players’ perception before and after attempting 10 kicks. While standing in front of the real-life goal, participants were asked to adjust the width and height of the model to scale.

The players’ pre-performance estimations didn’t correlate at all with their subsequent success rate. But after 10 field goal attempts, their perceived goal size was highly correlated with performance.

Interestingly, the change in players’ perception didn’t just depend on how many goals they missed — it also mattered how they missed their goals. Folks who failed because they didn’t kick high enough perceived the crossbar to be taller, while those who kicked to the side viewed it as more narrow.

Dr. Judd’s Comments:

It seems that our perception is indeed our reality. In this study those that had failed at the assigned task perceived that their goal was more difficult to attain. We are all guilty of that to some degree. So, was the goal in the study truly smaller than normal? No, of course it wasn’t. Those in the study chose to see it as smaller than normal. The state of our life is OUR choice. The world knocks us around sometimes, but the world will go on despite what we think of it. So we get to decide if we are a victim or a creator. I choose to create! I create a positive environment by seeing the world as a place full of potential. I decided many years ago to be a happy person. If you ask me, “How are you today?” you will get some crazy answer like “Phenomenal” or “I’m having the best day of my life!” This causes people to either smile or give me a suspicious look wanting to know why I am so upbeat! Either way it improves both of our days! Try those words the next time someone asks, “How are you today?” Happiness is infectious so you will both have a better day. It could be the first step to your world being a better place!

Keep your chin up and have a “Phenomenal” day!!


Dr. Judd Wattenbarger

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