Why do people find it difficult to think outside the box

To learn how to think more broadly, it is necessary to overcome the functional zakreplёnnost



"Think outside the box", "going beyond his thought" - such phrases in commercials and ads are found more often. Their authors are exploiting inherent in virtually all people desire to be original and independent in judgment, and they have achieved such success that non-standard line of thought will inevitably become the next standard and simple ploy in the hunt for the contents of wallets of consumers.



It was not always: the original concept going beyond the traditional way of thinking is an inspiration to many psychologists, including for outstanding representative of Gestalt Karl Duncker. Among the key provisions of the direction of psychological science - the assertion that the perception of the human brain an object can not be reduced to the simple sum of its properties, such as shape, taste, smell, and others. Simply put, to determine a flower like a rose, you do not feel it thoroughly examine the petals and thorns - just one short glance.

By studying the characteristics of perception and thinking, Dunker found psychological phenomenon, which he called a functional fastened. The essence of this phenomenon is as follows: Using an object in one complicates its subsequent use in the same situation, but for a different purpose.

To prove the tendency of people to get stuck in traditional ways of using objects, Karl Duncker in 1945 an experiment in which participants were asked to help with a box of matches and a pushpin wall mounted candle. Most of the volunteers first of all just trying to pin the candle, but the buttons were too short. Others, lighting matches, melted paraffin to "glue" the spark, but also a way to nothing. Only a few guessed right button mounted on the wall box, and in it to light a candle. Participants from the beginning was offered a box as a container for the buttons, so not all were able to see in it the candlestick, becoming hostage to the very function is fixed.

By the way, the following experiments have shown that if you give people a button and box separately, and they are much more likely to quickly find the solution to the problem - the use of a person easier to find the object, the function of which is not fixed. Also, the phenomenon of functional enshrined virtually disappears if the same thing is used for different purposes, even in situations, one after another.

via factroom.ru