It took me a while to really understand perceptual contrast, I read the example multiple times trying to figure out If I had been through this and if I did when was it. Finally, It kind of clicked where this could apply to my life clearly I connected it to none other than basketball. In practice Mulkey makes us use a tennis ball to warmup with. At the beginning of every practice we dribble with this little ball because the concept is that if you can handle a smaller ball than the actual basketball you can handle an actual basketball any day of the week. At the end of the warmup we move on to the weight ball for the exact same reason, it is still something that should make the regular basketball easier to handle in a game. I felt that was a great way to describe perceptual contrast in my everyday life.

In the book that we read for this week there were plenty of quotes that supported this example, one being Griffin et. al. emphasizes the point being, “that the same thing in this instance, room temperature water can be made to seem very different, depending on the nature of the event that proceeds it,” (12). On the very next page, he states “it is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle, to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them, (13). Finally, the last quote that ties this all together is “the ability to manipulate without the appearance of manipulation” (11).

These quotes definitely support my claim by showing why it could be perceptual contrast. The first quote supports by giving another example that used to show what perceptual contrast was to another group of people. That way is definitely a way that could be used to support that case. The second quote basically shows the exact same thing except it is being used in a clothing store. Coach Mulkey gives us the little basketballs in order for the normal sized basketballs to feel more comfortable when we get them. She sales us the smaller balls before the bigger balls. Its kind of like playing mind tricks on people without even knowing it. The last quote ties it all together by showing what all of the different examples of perceptual contrast really is. The idea of perceptual contrast is just being able to manipulate the mind without telling the mind that it is being manipulated.

our minds are being manipulated and we didn’t even know it!