00:00Okay, look at the center of the cross.
00:02No, don't get distracted by the celebrity's glam.
00:06Just keep staring at the cross.
00:08Go on, just a little longer.
00:10And suddenly, something weird starts happening.
00:14Those faces go from red carpet gorgeous to downright bizarre, right?
00:18What kind of creepy spell is at work here?
00:21Well, we promise you, we didn't do any Photoshop magic.
00:24Look, if we stop this crazy roulette and you focus on the photos,
00:28you'll see that Miley Cyrus still looks great.
00:31This optical illusion is known as the flash face distortion effect.
00:36Basically, these photos are arranged in a way that totally messes with our heads.
00:40And our brains love to compare things.
00:43So when the images switch really fast,
00:45and you see someone with a tiny nose right after someone with a regular nose,
00:49your brain gets confused.
00:51Suddenly, a normal nose can look as huge as Pinocchio's.
00:55The same goes for lips, eyes, you name it.
00:57Since our brains are always comparing each face to the one before,
01:01they end up turning these beautiful celebrities
01:04into exaggerated creepy cartoon versions of themselves.
01:09So tell me, what do you see here?
01:11A horse or a seal?
01:13It partly depends on where your eyes land first.
01:17If you look at the bottom of the picture,
01:19your brain probably thinks it's a horse.
01:21But if your gaze goes to the upper right corner first,
01:24suddenly it looks like a seal's tail.
01:26But it's not just about where we look.
01:30Then, something even stranger is happening here.
01:32When our brains spot an ambiguous figure,
01:35with unclear information,
01:37we basically see what we want to see.
01:40In one experiment,
01:42scientists showed this exact image to a group of people
01:44and told them that if they spotted a farm animal,
01:47they'd win a candy treat.
01:49Yum!
01:50But if they saw a sea creature,
01:52they'd get canned beans,
01:54which is kind of weird, right?
01:56The results showed that 80% of the people saw a horse.
01:59So they decided to switch it up.
02:02This time, whoever saw a sea animal would get a treat.
02:05When the motivation changed,
02:07can you guess what happened?
02:08More participants ended up seeing a seal in the second round.
02:12So yeah, it seems like psychology plays a huge role
02:15in how we interpret ambiguous images.
02:20We also have these undecipherable figures.
02:24I mean, no matter how hard you try,
02:26you just won't be able to fully understand the image.
02:29Take the impossible trident, for example.
02:32On one side, it looks like three cylindrical shapes.
02:35But on the other side,
02:37it seems like they merge into two rectangular parts.
02:39This happens because the vision center of our brains
02:43does a lot of its work subconsciously and automatically,
02:47interpreting the figure as a three-dimensional object.
02:50But when we see that structure in 3D,
02:53it doesn't make any rational sense.
02:55It's similar to the Penrose triangle.
02:57This triangle is physically impossible to construct
03:00in the real world,
03:01so we just can't figure it out.
03:05The next optical illusion is the negative after-image effect.
03:09So, look at the three dots on her nose.
03:12If you didn't guess it already,
03:13that's Jennifer Lopez looking like an avatar character.
03:17But don't worry,
03:18this eerie look is about to change right before your eyes.
03:21Keep your gaze fixed on those three dots
03:23right in the center of the picture.
03:25Don't look away, and don't blink.
03:28Alright, on the count of three,
03:30we'll switch to a blank white screen.
03:32But you have to keep your eyes wide open.
03:35Ready? Here we go.
03:371, 2, 3, bam!
03:39Can you see what I see?
03:41Yup, it's J-Lo,
03:42looking fabulous in her red outfit.
03:45Crazy, right?
03:46But there's a solid reason behind this magic.
03:49Our eyes have millions of tiny light-sensitive cells
03:52called rods and cones.
03:54Rods help us see in low light
03:56and pick up things in our peripheral view,
03:58which can also be pronounced peripheral view.
04:01Well, cones are all about color,
04:03bright lights, and fine details.
04:04When light hits these cells,
04:07they get excited and send signals to our brains,
04:10where everything gets processed into what we actually see.
04:13But here's the catch.
04:15Cone cells can get tired.
04:17If they stare at the same color for too long,
04:20well, they need a break.
04:21That's when other cone cells step in to help out.
04:24Different cone cells are better at handling red, green,
04:27and blue colors.
04:28So when certain cone cells get fatigued,
04:31the theory of opponent processing kicks in,
04:33allowing other cones to take over.
04:36And that's how the color in J-Lo's photo magically appeared.
04:41Hey, hey!
04:42Look who it is!
04:43Einstein!
04:45Now, squint your eyes,
04:46or if you prefer,
04:47take a few steps back.
04:49Wait!
04:50Is Einstein suddenly turning into Marilyn Monroe?
04:52This is a hybrid image,
04:55which is kind of like a mash-up of two pictures.
04:58It combines the blurry parts of one image
05:00with the sharp details of another.
05:02In this case,
05:03Einstein's image is all about thin lines and sharp contours,
05:07like wrinkles and strands of hair.
05:09While Marilyn Monroe's is more about the big picture,
05:12with those blurred shapes.
05:14When you step back or squint your eyes,
05:16those tiny details fade away,
05:18and suddenly,
05:19Monroe's face jumps out at you.
05:21The same thing happens here.
05:23At first,
05:24this woman looks kind of meh,
05:26not happy,
05:27not sad.
05:27But if you squint your eyes a little,
05:30suddenly,
05:30she looks really mad.
05:32Uh-oh.
05:35Wow!
05:35What a twist!
05:37Here are Kim Kardashian
05:38and Timothee Chalamet's photos
05:40turned upside down.
05:42Did you notice anything strange about them?
05:44You probably didn't,
05:45but if you look closely,
05:47you'll see their eyes and mouths aren't flipped.
05:50This is called the inverted face illusion.
05:53It happens because our brains are wired
05:55to recognize faces right-side up.
05:57We process them as a whole
05:59and pick up on details really quickly.
06:01But when a face is upside down,
06:03our brains struggle to catch those odd details,
06:06like the upside-down features.
06:10This trick is known as the cafe wall illusion.
06:13And what's crazy about that
06:14is these bricks aren't crooked at all.
06:17In fact, the horizontal lines
06:18are perfectly straight and parallel.
06:21This image tricks our brains
06:22because of how we process contrast.
06:25The sharp black and white tiles next to each other
06:27create a visual conflict,
06:30making our brains think those lines are bending.
06:32But if you switch the colors to something softer,
06:35like pink and blue,
06:36the illusion disappears.
06:38The softer contrast doesn't mess
06:40with our perception the same way,
06:42so we can see the straight lines clearly.
06:44And there's something else.
06:46Check out the layers of mortar between the bricks.
06:49Yep, those gray lines.
06:51The distortion only happens
06:52when the brightness of the mortar
06:54is somewhere between the dark and light tiles.
06:57So if the mortar is too dark or too light,
07:00the illusion fades away.
07:02Poof.
07:04Now, these strawberries are red, right?
07:07Well, wrong.
07:08In this case, the strawberries aren't red at all.
07:11They are gray.
07:12This magic happens because of something called
07:15color constancy,
07:16which is our ability to recognize the color of an object
07:19regardless of changes in lighting or surroundings.
07:22In this experiment,
07:24all the red pixels in this photo
07:25were swapped out for gray ones.
07:27And we can prove it by zooming in.
07:30It only looks like there's red in this picture
07:32because the background is blue.
07:34Our brains think that the light source
07:36has some blue in it,
07:37and then they figure out the color of things
07:39by discounting the color of the light source.
07:42When your brain takes those gray pixels
07:44and subtracts out that blue bias,
07:46you end up seeing red.
07:48Interesting, right?
07:50The same thing happens with the dress.
07:52If your brain sees the lighting as a bit yellowish,
07:56it tries to discount that golden glow,
07:58making you see the dress as blue and black.
08:01But if your mind thinks the background is darker,
08:04it discounts those bluish tones,
08:06and suddenly the dress looks white and gold.
08:09So what's the real color of the dress?
08:11Well, in this case,
08:13it's actually black and blue.
08:15But let's wrap this up
08:16before we dive into that never-ending debate again.
08:21That's it for today.
08:22So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,
08:25then give the video a like
08:26and share it with your friends.
08:27Or if you want more,
08:29just click on these videos
08:30and stay on the bright side.
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