Excellent! Thanks for posting that. It should be required viewing for anyone who believes he should trust his ears and that he is clever enough to avoid such sources of bias.
Because humans are primarily visual creatures we can't avoid allowing what we see to influence what we perceive from the other senses. It has been estimated that about 80% of the sensory processing done by our brains is devoted to interpreting the raw signals our eyes deliver to the brain. The signals from our ears, nose, skin, etc. get a lot less CPU time than the eyes do. That video on the McGurk effect is a great example of that.
Another easy demonstration is done with jelly beans. Most people believe the red ones taste like cherry, orange ones taste like oranges, yellow ones taste like lemons, etc. If you taste them blindfolded, they all taste the same - like sugar - but blindfolded people will work hard to assign a color based on a non-existent flavor. I never could figure out what flavor the green and purple jelly beans were supposed to taste like. Avoid using the red jelly beans that are hot, and the black jelly beans if they are licorice flavored.
