Mind Trap #6 | The Contrast Effect

"Simply put, how you see anything depends on your reference point. One way or the other, your focus will determine your reality.”

 This blog is part of our series of some advanced Mind Traps which will help you overcome difficult situations and equip you with more wisdom for daily living. These include:

1. Cognitive Dissonance
2. Spotlight Effect
3. Anchoring Effect
4. Halo Effect
5. Gambler's Fallacy
6. Contrast Effect
7. Confirmation Bias
8. Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon
9. Zeigarnik Effect

 

 The Contrast Effect

 

What is it?

• people perceive things differently based on their context or comparison,
• Comparison can influence purchasing decisions
• It’s easy to think something is 
• Attractive - when it sits next to something ugly
• Large - when it sits next to something small
• Expensive - when it sits next to something cheaper
• Research 
• Food - Rs.500 
• people are given opportunity to save Rs.50 on food in a nearby restaurant
• they will walk extra 10mins to do so
• Clothes - Rs.10,000 
• people are given opportunity to save Rs.50 - a nearby store
• very few people take the option to walk another 10mins
• Cognitive bias that distorts perception 
• by enhancing differences 
• when comparing something to something else
• Can be explicit or implicit, simultaneous or at separate points in time.
• Applies to various traits
• physical qualities (color, taste) and 
• abstract qualities (price, attractiveness)

Examples of the Contrast Effect:

• Grey square appearing darker on a light background compared to a dark background.
• Sweet drinks tasting sweeter after drinking something less sweet.
• Feeling more physically attractive after looking at pictures of relatively unattractive people.
• Feeling less confident in academic abilities when surrounded by high-performing students.

Which of the two smaller gray squares is darker in shade? 

 

Why People Experience the Contrast Effect:

• Our brain does this in background
• cognitive system intuitively utilizes comparisons 
• to process and evaluate information.
• comparisons is done to similar objects/entities or memory of them
• Expensive product feeling reasonably priced when compared to a more expensive product.

Psychological Mechanisms of Contrast Effect:

• Inclusion/Exclusion model: 
• Contrast effect occurs when information is excluded or included in mental representation of the target entity.
• Negative information about high price of target product excluded when compared to more expensive background product.

Context Effects: Contrast and Assimilation:

• Contrast effect: 
• Increases perceived difference between things being compared.
• Assimilation effect: 
• Decreases perceived difference between things being compared.
• Context effects occur when comparisons with background information affect evaluation of stimuli.

Psychological Mechanisms of Assimilation and Contrast:

• Global processing leads to assimilation 
• by including relevant information and 
• forming abstract representations.
• Local processing leads to contrast 
• by excluding relevant information and 
• forming concrete representations.

Factors Leading to Contrast vs Assimilation:

• Focus on similarities between options leads to assimilation.
• Focus on differences between options leads to contrast.

How to Fix?

• Be aware of the influence of comparisons on perception.
• Consider the context and background information when evaluating stimuli.

Keep reading. Keep thinking.
Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals.

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