People on social media were left in fits of laughter after a standard image of a man sitting on his motorbike recently went viral. So can you see what’s really going on?
It’s quite normal for an innocent-looking photo to end up looking cheekier than expected. It’s happened many times before but more previously with a group of friends posing for a snap on a boat trip.
But it occurs quite frequently as optical illusions work by tricking the brain into misinterpreting the information it receives from the eyes. Often brainteasers happen as the mind takes ‘shortcuts’ and makes assumptions to quickly process the vast amount of visual data it receives, and it’s no different here as a picture of a man sitting on his motorbike recently went viral. So can you see why?
The picture, which was shared on Reddit in the optical illusions forum with its 202,000 members, shows the bloke in sunglasses looking at his phone.
He’s wearing a jumper and shorts as he teamed the look with a pair of flip flops. But his helmet gives a different kind of illusion and it’s safe to say many people can’t ‘unsee’ it.
Since it was shared, the post garnered 4,600 upvotes and dozens of comments where the picture looks like a woman is bending in front of him.
One wrote: “Thought the guy was taking a photo of her bum.” While another added: “I mean… those are some nice legs.”
A third commented: “He really needs to start doing leg day. I was convinced that those were women’s legs.”
Others, however, couldn’t see what the big discussion was all about as one offered an explanation and said: “At first glance it looked to me like a woman with a helmet on leaning forward and the man leaning back.”
How do optical illusions work?
These kind of images work by tricking the brain into misinterpreting visual information. It leads to the brain using a shortcut to process images and creates a perception that differs from reality.
Deceptions occur because of limitations in how our eyes and brain work, such as the brain overcompensating for depth cues in 2D images or misinterpreting sensory signals due to factors like rapid eye movements.
Meanwhile, optical Illusions are often caused by how colour, light, patterns, or motion are arranged, which can lead the brain to “see” things that aren’t there or perceive a 2D image as 3D.
There are also many different kinds of optical illusions, like Troxler’s fading which focuses on one part of an image which could cause other static parts to fade or disappear entirely because the brain ignores unchanging visual information.
