# Looking without seeing.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 27, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402 "2016-03-27T22:21:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fstbk1968](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@fstbk1968](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fstbk1968)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402/21 "2016-03-30T20:31:45Z")

</div>

Motorcyclists are very familiar with this phenomenon. Drivers will often look directly at you but since they are looking for a car, not a motorcycle, they don’t see you and pull out. Thus the bumper sticker, “Start Seeing Motorcycles”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402/22 "2016-04-01T18:11:19Z")

</div>

This happens to me all the time. My favorite theory is that either my husband, the cat, or a supernatural force hides the item for a time and then places it in plain view later.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402/23 "2016-04-02T01:57:32Z")

</div>

> [@jtur88](#):
>
> A survey in Australia found that a disproportionate number of pedestrians are struck by experienced drivers, not by beginners. A driver in his first few years tends to look at the entire traffic environment before proceeding. Experience causes one to make a more cursory glance, and filter for other cars, but ignoring things that are not cars.

I find it fascinating how you ridicule my point in one post, and then back it up in the next.

As Sherlock Holmes said, “You see, but do not observe.”

Do I need to repeat this again, or have you learned your lesson?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402/24 "2016-04-02T19:17:15Z")

</div>

What your brain is visualizing is not what you are looking for. It’s called “selective misperception.” Like the time a friend dropped a green paper on her floor filled with papers and could not find it. I picked up every paper and found it had flipped over to the other, black side.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-without-seeing/750402.md?page=1)