{"id":59680,"date":"2022-02-10T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=59680"},"modified":"2022-02-14T14:38:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T18:38:48","slug":"the-salience-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is the salience effect? Why does the brain tend to focus on the most flashy, salient stimuli to the exclusion of everything else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the name suggests, the salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most salient stimuli in the environment. The salience effect relies on your past experiences. You might notice certain unusual details due to, for instance, your career or past experiences, while someone else would notice different details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the salience effect, why it occurs, and how to overcome it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-salience-effect\"><strong>The Salience Effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your brain latches onto unusual or notable factors of a situation and gives these factors too much credit for causing the situation\u2014that&#8217;s the salience effect.  Popular attention influences which factors the salience effect focuses on. For example, many people talk about the importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-going-to-college-worth-it\/\">going to college<\/a> to get a good job. If you meet a person whose business failed and they don\u2019t have a college degree, your mind will latch onto that salient factor because it&#8217;s at the forefront of your mind, and you\u2019ll attribute the failed business to the person\u2019s lack of a college degree. Meanwhile, the owner\u2019s education might have had no impact on the failure of the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: <a href=\"https:\/\/tactics.convertize.com\/definitions\/salience-effect\">Businesses try to draw popular attention to their products by standing out among their competitors<\/a>. This is increasingly difficult as advertisements infiltrate all of modern life and people become adept at ignoring them. However, there\u2019s a form of popular attention that is very common in modern life: star reviews. Whether it\u2019s movies, restaurants, or an online purchase, people rely on this modern version of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/word-of-mouth-marketing-strategy\/\">word of mouth<\/a> when making decisions.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dobelli recommends avoiding the salience effect by <strong>ignoring the easiest or most obvious information and looking for the less flashy causes behind situations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-overcome-the-salience-effect\"><strong>How to Overcome the Salience Effect<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Dobelli\u2019s suggestion to look for the less obvious causes behind situations can be difficult to put into action, since you\u2019re competing directly <em>against<\/em> the powerful salience effect. Here are a few tips to make this easier:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Look for the less obvious causes<\/strong> of a situation by <a href=\"https:\/\/fs.blog\/thinking-about-thinking\/\">asking a lot of \u201cwhy\u201ds, slowing down to consider the answers to these \u201cwhy\u201ds, and being critical about how much you really understand about the potential causes.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2<\/strong>. <strong>Surround yourself with people from diverse backgrounds.<\/strong> As discussed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/what-is-a-perceptual-set-2795464\">past experience determines which facts you focus on<\/a>. Knowing people who can bring different experiences to a situation means you can combine your assessments to see the whole picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3.<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thedecisionlab.com\/biases\/salience-bias\/#:~:text=avoiding%20the%20bias.-,Real%2Dtime%20feedback,-Studies%20have%20shown\"><strong>Provide real-time feedback.<\/strong><\/a> If you want to combat the salient traits you initially notice, provide other salient information: For instance, focus on the possible consequences of your decision as you\u2019re making it. If you\u2019re buying a car, seeing how fuel costs affect your budget can help you look past the impressive paint job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the salience effect? Why does the brain tend to focus on the most flashy, salient stimuli to the exclusion of everything else? As the name suggests, the salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most salient stimuli in the environment. The salience effect relies on your past experiences. You might notice certain unusual details due to, for instance, your career or past experiences, while someone else would notice different details. Keep reading to learn about the salience effect, why it occurs, and how to overcome it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[576],"class_list":["post-59680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-the-art-of-thinking-clearly","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here&#039;s why it happens and how to overcome it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here&#039;s why it happens and how to overcome it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"265\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\"},\"wordCount\":492,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Art of Thinking Clearly\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\",\"name\":\"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here's why it happens and how to overcome it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":265},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention - Shortform Books","description":"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here's why it happens and how to overcome it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention","og_description":"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here's why it happens and how to overcome it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":265,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention","datePublished":"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/"},"wordCount":492,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","keywords":["The Art of Thinking Clearly"],"articleSection":["Psychology","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/","name":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","datePublished":"2022-02-10T17:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-14T18:38:48+00:00","description":"The salience effect is the tendency to focus on the most flashy stimuli in the environment. Here's why it happens and how to overcome it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","width":750,"height":265},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-salience-effect\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Salience Effect: The Psychology of Attention"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/increase-focus.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59680"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60388,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59680\/revisions\/60388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}