Optical illusions can be quite confusing, and they often lead to online debates and viral clips. Such situations usually divide people into two camps, and the discussions become so interesting that they last for a long time. One such optical illusion showed up on YouTube in 2018, showing an image of a woman that was spinning, but in what direction left viewers stumped.
A Captivating Optical Illusion
The public started debating if the lady in the optical illusion was spinning left, right, or both ways, and that soon became a big discussion in the comments section. The image of the woman in the video is composed of dots outlining her head and upper torso. To some, she appeared to be turning clockwise, while others saw her going counter-clockwise. There was also a camp of people saying the woman was spinning in one direction and then suddenly switched to the opposite.
People on YouTube were utterly baffled by the optical illusion and shared their experiences with it. Some were just surprised, while others even felt terrified by the video. Even after multiple views, people couldn’t decide what exactly was going on in the video. One viewer explained that the brain naturally sees the image going clockwise, but after a change in focus, the direction could change.
The Human Brain Is Not Perfect
Optical illusions often confuse people, and viewers of this one still haven’t agreed on what direction the woman is spinning. This shows how an optical illusion can show that humans can make mistakes when the brain is tricked. The designers of illusion images use contrast, brightness, perspective, depth, and afterimages to trick the brain.
In the case of the spinning woman, there are no clear visual cues to let the brain know the direction of rotation. The image doesn’t have a background, and the brain makes sense of it by filling in the missing information. The direction of spin depends on how the brain interprets the ambiguous cues in the image, which is why the results differ.