Why illusions happen

We bring our life histories to these small perceptions. In this illusion, the Pac-Man-like shapes give the impression of a triangle in our minds. We only need the suggestion of one — implied via the corners — to fill in the rest of the picture with our minds.

It may be that a lifetime of looking at triangles is what makes the rest of us see one so plainly in this image. He had to build them from scratch. What is the same is that I am still guessing.

The horizontal lines are actually parallel, and not at all slanted. Look at the distance between them at the start and end of each row if you don't believe it. Wonderful version of the cafe wall illusion, by Victoria Skye. Some of these examples may seem frivolous. Why does it matter that one person sees a dress as black and blue and another sees it as white and gold? It matters because scientists believe the same basic processes underlie many of our more complicated perceptions and thoughts.

In the past, researchers have found that even slight rewards can change the way people perceive objects.

Take this classic image used in psychological studies. What do you see? In one experiment, the participants played a game wherein they had to keep track of animals they saw on screen. In the end, a high score meant getting a candy treat desirable! The very last thing the participants saw was the above image.

In a more complex example , Balcetis has found that when she tells study participants to pay attention to either an officer or a civilian in a video of a police altercation, it can change their perception of what happened depending on their prior experience with law enforcement and the person in the video with whom they more closely identified. But you can encourage people to listen to other perspectives and be curious about the veracity of their own.

The neuroscientists I spoke to said the big principles that underlie how our brains process what we see also underlie most of our thinking. The ambiguity is going to be resolved one way or another, and sometimes in a way that does not match reality. Political scientists and psychologists have long documented how political partisans perceive the facts of current events differently depending on their political beliefs. In a way, you can think of bias as a social illusion.

Studies find that many people perceive black men to be bigger and, therefore, potentially more threatening than they actually are , or generally associate darker skin tones and certain facial features with criminality. Cops can confuse people removing wallets from their pockets with people reaching for guns, often with tragic consequences. Our brains work hard to bend reality to meet our prior experiences, our emotions, and our discomfort with uncertainty. This happens with vision.

But it also happens with more complicated processes, like thinking about politics, the pandemic , or the reality of climate change. Wallisch has come up with a name for phenomena like The Dress that generate divergent perceptions based on our personal characteristics. And because we have different priors, that leads to disagreement about the image or event in question. Wallisch sees it everywhere in society.

I recently tweeted some frustration over how mass protests against police brutality might be perceived if it seems as though they led to increased Covid cases. Prediction: In a few weeks, there will be endless argument among know-it-all types on Twitter and TV about what led to rising Covid cases.

No one will have the right data. It will bring out the worst in everyone. And it will We can seek out verified sources of information. We can turn to expertise and also earnestly question it. Instead, the illusions and the science behind them raise a question: How do we go about our lives knowing our experiences might be a bit wrong? We should be curious about our imperfections, as that curiosity may lead us closer to the truth. Our psychology makes it hard. Naive realism is the feeling that our perception of the world reflects the truth.

But illusions remind us it does not. They force us to reinterpret our senses, and our sense of being in the world. Navigating this is the challenge of being a living, thinking person. But simply acknowledging it and trying to put it into practice is a good place to start.

I know I will try to keep remembering that reality always seems real. Even when I mess it up. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

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Literal Optical Illusions Looking at smaller pieces of the image reveals many different animals. View Citation You may need to edit author's name to meet the style formats, which are in most cases "Last name, First name. Author s : Dr. Modern Language Association, 7th Ed.

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