Without realizing it, people will perceive things according to how they want to see them, a new study suggests.

"There is an age old hypothesis(1) in psychology that a person's wishes, hopes and desires can influence what they see," said David Dunning, Cornell University psychologist and co-author of the study. "This theory had lay dormant(2) for about 40 years, though, without any supporting evidence. We wanted to test the murky(3) waters again."

In five separate tests conducted by Dunning and a graduate student, Emily Balcetis, 412 volunteers from Cornell were presented with an ambiguous(4) picture that could be interpreted as two distinct(5) figures，either a horse's head or the body of a seal, for example. They were told they would be assigned to a taste test of either fresh-squeezed orange juice or a gelatinous(6), clumpy(7) and rather unappealing(8) veggie(9) smoothie(10), depending on whether they saw a farm animal or sea creature.

More often than not(11) the participants chose the figure that would lead them to the juice.

The trick to making the study meaningful was making sure the test subjects didn't know what was going on, Dunning said, noting that the generally high IQ of Cornell students made cheating a real possibility.

"The figures we used were chosen so we knew the people weren't just lying or tricking us," Dunning said. "We also tracked automatic, unconscious eye movements which were out of their control."

Not only did participants routinely(12) see the figure that produced favorable results, their eye motions indicated that they were never aware of the alternate option being available.

"Determining whether a person walking towards you is smiling or smirking(13), how close the finish line seems in a race or how loud a partner，a wife, husband, lover is yelling during an argument," Dunning gave as examples that could arise in life. "Could we interpret ambiguous situations towards our expectations and hopes and away from our fears? That is the ultimate question."

一项研究表明，人们看待事物时，有意无意地把它们理解成为自己事先想象的样子。

本研究合著者、科内尔 大学心理学家大卫·达宁说：“长久以来，心理学界有一个假设，认为人的愿望、希望和欲望会影响他对事物的判断。由于没有确凿的证据，这个理论被弃置了大约40年。这次我们希望能再探深渊。”

达宁和研究生艾米丽·巴尔塞迪斯从科内尔大学选出412名志愿者，对他们进行五次单独测试。他们选择了一些模棱两可的图片，这些图像可以被看成是两种截然不同的东西，例如看起来既像马头又像海豹。受测者被告知正在进行品味测试，如果从图片中看到农场动物，就说明你喜欢鲜榨果汁，如果看到海洋生物就说明你喜欢果冻样、块状、毫无吸引力的蔬菜冰砂。

通常受测者会选择和果汁对应的图像。

达宁说使研究结果有意义的关键是保证受测者不知道测试的真正目的，尤其科内尔学生们的智商普遍较高，欺骗研究人员的可能性不是没有。

达宁说：“我们精心挑选图片，以免学生们对我们撒谎或者欺骗，我们还观察他们无意识的眼部运动，这是他们无法控制的。”

不仅受测者不假思索地选择会导致理想结果的图像，他们的眼部运动也显示出他们从来没有意识到对图片还可能有别的理解方式。

达宁说：“当我们判断迎面走来的人是在微笑还是在假笑、田径赛场的终点线离我们有多远、或者搭档、妻子、丈夫、情人在争吵过程中的声音有多大的时候，我们能否说我们对这些含糊的状况的理解更贴近于我们期待和希望的样子，同时远离我们害怕的样子？这是最终问题所在。”