Scientists in disguise - my Roomies

We cannot attend to every event or person around us – this is termed as ‘Selective attention’ in psychology.  That's how humans are.

If I go by this theory, I have found the answer to the biggest question posed to me - Off course - by my roomies. They have always wondered why I pay no attention while watching some movie or reading one of those hefty novels. 

There was this one incident when I was watching some movie with headsets on. They all gathered around me and started shouting at me – all the names they call me. I was not aware of it. I had seen them gather around me. I could see them talking but in flashes, as i was gripped by that movie. They started raising their voice and i could hear them calling my name.

In that moment i chose not to reply but listen to what was going on. They were shouting my name one by one with growing pitch and loudness, trying to merit a response from me. Maybe they had a competition going on.

I could hear one of them putting forward a theory”Indrajeet would respond to a specific roomy only”. So all other were out of competition and the one man was up and roaring at me. I felt the situation might get to screams via loud-louder-loudest. So I chose to shout back and ask him to shut the heck off.  There were loud cheers accompanied by the victory dance.

Rohit who won was happy for the victory. Rohan was busy manipulating people into thinking that it was his theory that had won. The other Rohit was busy contemplating some sarcastic barbs and i was wondering “what’s wrong with these people, why can’t I enjoy one good movie?”  In that moment I was awry of their little adventure.

While i sit down read experimental methods in psychology, i get the feeling that my roomies are scientists in disguise. Why i say this is because the psychologists do the same experiments with so called ‘natural’ setup. I am the object of roomies’ experiment. While i feel proud of their scientific approach, I am little disheartened that i was  not one them in this experiment! :( So I could call myself a scientist in disguise! :)