Eight experiments reveal that observing success wields adverse effects on how people judge others' failures. We find that repeated exposure to successful performances leads people to perceive a task as not so difficult or complicated after all—and so they more harshly evaluate those who struggle to do it. Across various tasks—from completing a motor-skills test, to doing a dance move, to sketching a drawing—repeated exposure to success led people to expect others to perform better on their first-time attempts (Experiments 1–2) and criticize others for failing (Experiments 3–4), even when the performer was unequipped to succeed (and when harsh critics themselves were mistakenly overconfident). This effect was not explained by incidentally negative effects of repeated exposure (e.g., annoyance, tiredness: Experiment 5); instead, it indeed depended on people's (mis)perceptions of learning from mere watching, such that it was moderated by the observability of successful execution (Experiment 6) and whether one judged another person's poor attempt (which entails mere watching) vs. one's own poor attempt (which entails watching plus doing: Experiment 7). Accordingly, harsh critics became kinder to others after attempting the task themselves (Experiment 8). These findings reveal when and why observing success risks callousing people toward failure. This blinding effect is especially consequential in today's information age, which offers unprecedented access to success and skilled performances (e.g., via social media): Such access may not only be inflating people's confidence for recreating what they see, but also deflating people's empathy and understanding of those who try (and fail).

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八项实验表明，观察成功会对人们如何判断他人的失败产生不利影响。我们发现，反复接触成功的表演会让人们认为一项任务并不那么困难或复杂——因此他们会更严厉地评价那些努力完成任务的人。在各种任务中——从完成运动技能测试，到做一个舞蹈动作，再到素描——反复接触成功导致人们期望别人在他们的第一次尝试中表现更好（实验 1-2）并批评别人失败（实验 3-4），即使表演者没有能力取得成功（并且当严厉的批评者错误地过度自信时）。这种影响不能用重复接触的偶然负面影响来解释（例如，烦恼、疲倦：实验 5）；反而，加做：实验7）。因此，严厉的批评者在自己尝试完成任务后对其他人变得更加友善（实验 8）。这些发现揭示了何时以及为什么观察成功可能会使人们走向失败。这种致盲效应在当今的信息时代尤其重要，它提供了前所未有的成功和熟练表演的途径（例如，通过社交媒体）：这种途径可能不仅增强了人们对重现所见事物的信心，而且削弱了人们的同理心和理解力那些尝试（和失败）的人。

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