Nudge Were the 2018 Gatwick drones real?
Jun 22, 2026
David Robson, award-winning science writer on mind–body links, explores how expectations shape perception. He examines the 2018 Gatwick drone panic and how anticipation can create shared sightings. He discusses studies where priming makes people hear or see things, expectation-driven health effects, and performance boosts from belief.
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Gatwick Shutdown Began With One Report
- Gatwick shut down after an initial report of two aerial vehicles on December 19, 2018, causing widescale disruption to flights and passengers.
- Hundreds of sightings followed across dozens of witnesses, yet airport radar detected nothing and no physical evidence was found.
Perception Is Built From Predictions
- The brain is a prediction machine that constructs simulations from ambiguous sensory data, so perception often reflects expectations more than raw input.
- David Robson explains simulations usually match reality, but in ambiguous conditions expectations can fabricate features like seeing a drone in clouds.
White Noise Study Produced Imagined Songs
- A study had participants listen to white noise after being told sometimes they'd hear Bing Crosby singing White Christmas, and about a third reported hearing the song though it was never played.
- This shows expectation can create vivid auditory percepts from purely ambiguous noise.
