Looks can be deceiving: Investigating change blindness in an online setting

In the real world, people often fail to notice changes in their environment. In some cases, such as when a driver does not notice a car moving into their lane, the results can be catastrophic. This failure to notice changes in one’s environment is known as change blindness. Researchers have experimentally shown that individuals can experience change blindness, such as by failing to notice changes to on-screen images or a change in a conversation partner’s identity. However, less is known about how individuals experience change blindness in virtual settings, such as in Zoom or Google Meet meetings. Particularly, in online settings, will people experience change blindness (e.g., fail to notice a swap in conversation partner) when (a) their conversation partner’s on-screen background is highly cluttered or (b) the conversation involves sharing a meaningful experience?

These conditions were explored in research reported in an article recently published in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, “Looks Can Be Deceiving: Investigating Change Blindness in an Online Setting.” Across two studies with two different pairs of confederates (n = 134), participants engaged in an online video chat with a confederate, with two levels of background visual clutter (none or a lot) and three levels of interaction (none, light conversations about weather or television, or deeper conversations about goals or greatest regrets). Halfway through the study and out of the participant’s sight, the confederate swapped places with a second, similar-looking confederate, and the researchers recorded whether the participants noticed the swap. Across both studies, clutter did not seem to affect change blindness. However, the researchers found a large discrepancy in change blindness rates between Experiment 1 (79%; 52/66) and Experiment 2 (16%; 11/68): Many more participants in Experiment 1 failed to notice the confederate swapped places, as compared with the participants in Experiment 2. When exploring this discrepancy, the researchers found some evidence that increasing the level of interaction led to greater change blindness rates, but only for participants who belonged to different ethnicities than the confederates. The work suggests that (a) people may pay attention to others differently in virtual settings compared with in-person interactions; (b) ingroup and outgroup biases may have an effect on change blindness rates; and (c) although clutter does not seem to affect change blindness rates, the level of interaction might.

Overall, the findings provide insights into how individuals pay attention in virtual contexts and the factors that influence their attention. Knowing more about how individuals pay attention in virtual contexts is increasingly important as virtual interactions, communication, learning, and so forth become more prevalent in everyday life.

This article is in the Basic/Experimental Psychology topic area.

Saeed, S., Cook, A., Mackie, V., & Hayward, D. A. (2024). Looks can be deceiving: Investigating change blindness in an online setting. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology / Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 78(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1037/cep0000323

Dana A. Hayward, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta and director of the Visual Attention and Social Processes Lab. Her work investigates the complex interplay between attention and (a) the environment, (b) other people, and (c) one’s personality, using chronometric, eye- and motion-tracking, and neuroimaging techniques.

Saeeda Saeed, BS, received her bachelor of science with honors in mental health studies and neuroscience from the University of Toronto. She is now in her first year of the MD program at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She is interested in psychology research that is applicable to vulnerable populations and hopes to become a psychiatrist.

Arianna Cook, BS, received her bachelor of science with honors in psychology from the University of Alberta and is currently working as a research assistant in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Edmonton, Alberta. Her current research interests are in the areas of cognitive and social psychology, particularly how social factors influence how people pay attention to objects and other people.

Victoria Mackie, BA, received her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of Alberta and is now completing a master of arts in counseling psychology at Yorkville University. She is interested in social dynamics and is working toward a specialization in anxiety-related concerns, such as social anxiety disorder.