When the Mind Plays Games with Your Eye

A new study implies that people trying to kick field goals will see a much smaller goal after unsuccessful attempts

According to a new study at Purdue University, USA, if a football player has failed to score several times, the target could seem even more elusive on his next chance to score. The implication: people trying to kick field goals will see a much smaller goal after unsuccessful attempts. But those who kick better judge the goalposts to be farther apart and the crossbar higher to the ground. In the study, 23 non-football athletes attempted ten field-goal kicks from the centre of a football field. Overall, those who scored more of their kicks perceived the goal to be about 22 per cent bigger than their less successful counterparts. Generally speaking, then, players who miss because they kick the ball too wide judge the goal to be narrower, while those who kick the ball too high perceive the crossbar of the goal as lower off the ground. ‘Most people think of perception as just being about information received by the eye,’ says the study. ‘This research shows that perception is about more than just the optical system.’