Incredible facts
The perception of this image depends on your age.
Take a look at the optical illusion and tell me who you see: a young woman in profile or an old lady looking down sadly?
The illusion “My wife and my mother-in-law” was created by British cartoonist William Ely Hill and has puzzled many people.
See also: Optical illusion: do you see a pretty woman on a white background?
When you look at the image, you're either seeing your wife's face or your mother-in-law's face, but it's almost impossible to see them at the same time.
© wikipedia
A 2018 study by researchers at Flinders University in Australia showed how our age affects our subconscious perception of a person's face.
Since we can only see one face at a time, the image you see first depends on our age.
The study involved 393 participants (242 men and 141 women) aged 18 to 68 years and an average age of 32 years.
They were shown the image for only half a second and then asked to name the gender and age of the person they saw.
The results of the study showed that young people were more likely to see a young woman first, and older people saw an older woman primarily.
Moreover, young people not only saw a younger woman more often, but also named a younger age. On average, the age was 6.3 years younger than the older participants.
Psychologists attribute this phenomenon to so-called “self-age prejudice” in facial recognition.
This means that young people are more likely to recognize younger faces, while older people recognize older faces more accurately. In fact, we're best at recognizing faces in the same age group as us.
In addition, your experience can significantly influence the initial perception of the image on a subconscious level. The more people you meet and interact with, the better you can differentiate between people from different age groups, cultures, and genders.
However, even older people with more life experience perceived an old woman more easily than a young woman. This means that we still see faces that look like us first.
Will you be able to see the young girl in this image?
Share your answers in the comments.