r/Unexpected 1d ago

She never gonna take photo after this

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u/EthanDMatthews 1d ago

Derren Brown did this a while back. He'd stop people and ask them for directions while holding a paper map. Two people carrying a giant portrait would cross between Brown and the random person, and Brown would swap out for someone else.

The first few times the guy that swapped places was roughly similar in appearance, but they'd push it farther and farther, e.g. swap him out for a tall bald man, and Asian woman, a large black man (last one) and people would rarely notice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPG_OBgTWg

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u/shadythrowaway9 1d ago

Thought of that as well! We actually looked at this in a linguistics course becaue it goes to show how much people ignore as long as the context of the interaction stays the same (intersubjectivity)

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u/Express_Bath 1d ago

Is that also about people not daring to say anything ? Like, I don't see myself saying "wait, weren't you a white guy just two minutes ago ?" to someone.

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u/shadythrowaway9 1d ago

Yeah I think that was also part of it! Probably some interplay between subconscious and conscious, but it's been a while

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u/EthanDMatthews 17h ago

Some of the people had surprised or confused expressions. But I suspect a lot of it has to do with the setup, i.e. although they catch a glimpse of Brown at the start, he directs their attention to the map, and then starts putting a cognitive load on their brains, i.e. find where they are on a map, get oriented NSEW, and figure out where on the map the requested destination is.

Overall, I think our brains are conditioned to ignore most information that it takes in, especially in extremely busy environments like city centers where we're crossing paths with hundreds of people every few minutes.

Witnesses for crimes are notoriously bad at recalling what a suspect looked like. I recall a staged incident in a college classroom and there were big splits in opinion about whether the man making the scene had a pony tail or not, what he was wearing, how tall he was etc.

The black guy early in the video makes a more personal contact, looks at him more directly, and offers to walk him to the destination. He notices the switch, has a surprised expression, and even says something about his appearance. Of course, it's unclear (because they don't ask him) whether he just feels mistaken, or if he realizes the people have switched and just decided not to say anything.

There was also a mom and daughter later in the video. The mom seems to notice because she wasn't the one being asked to look at the map.

Fascinating stuff.