See what you want to see: Motivational influences on visual perception
Abstract
People's motivational states--their wishes and preferences--influence their processing of visual stimuli. In 5 studies, participants shown an ambiguous figure (e.g., one that could be seen either as the letter B or the number 13) tended to report seeing the interpretation that assigned them to outcomes they favored. This finding was affirmed by unobtrusive and implicit measures of perception (e.g., eye tracking, lexical decision tasks) and by experimental procedures demonstrating that participants were aware only of the single (usually favored) interpretation they saw at the time they viewed the stimulus. These studies suggest that the impact of motivation on information processing extends down into preconscious processing of stimuli in the visual environment and thus guides what the visual system presents to conscious awareness.
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Top-down brain-cognitive processes impact not only judgments but also what we see.
“The top-down brain–cognitive processes impact not only our judgments but also what we ‘see’ (Balcetis & Dunning, 2006)”
From Biased and biasing: the hidden bias cascade and bias snowball effects (2025) · cites this paper as Balcetis & Dunning, 2006
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- Authors
- Balcetis, E., & Dunning, D.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2006-10
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 612-625
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2089884446
- Cited by
- 649
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 45 · 2014: 42 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 39
- FWCI
- 8.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (RO1 56072)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- motivation, visual perception, ambiguous figures, outcome preferences, preconscious processing, conscious awareness, top-down processing, eye tracking, lexical decision, implicit measures
- MeSH terms
- Environment, Eye Movements, Humans, Motivation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Visual Fields, Visual Perception
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