This is the sort of optical illusion that has probably crossed all of our paths at a certain point in time. For many of us, it is an illusion that we have seen and not bothered to give a second thought to. “My Wife or Mother-In-Law” is one of the most famous optical illusions in the world and for good reason. It has been in existence since the late 1800s.
After its initial appearance in Germany, a British cartoonist decided to recreate it during the early 1900s. It is now believed that the image will determine the actual age of the person who attempts to decipher it. Some might see an older woman who happens to be looking to the left. Others will see a younger woman who is thoughtfully staring off into the void.
According to studies that have been published by Scientific Reports, the woman that you see in your mind’s eye will say a lot about where you are in life. The illusion was shown to a large group of people. They all varied in age but all fell somewhere between 18 to 68. As soon as they were able to identify that this was a picture of a woman, they were asked to guess her age.
As you may have expected, the answers were definitely all over the map. Those who looked at the optical illusion and saw a younger woman tended to be on the younger side. Meanwhile, the participants who looked at the optical illusion and saw an older woman were usually older themselves. A closer look at the image reveals the reasoning for these lines of thinking.
Those who saw an older woman viewed the eyes as the ears and believed that her lips were actually a necklace. Scientists also believe that we tend to process the ages of others by using our own as a jumping off point. This is what makes older people more likely to see an old person when they take a closer look at certain images.
We all have an inherent bias in this regard that cannot be forgotten about. Processing other faces causes us to consider things that we would normally not think about. If you would like to find out more about where your friends and loved ones stand on this one, be sure to pass these images along. You just might be surprised by some of the responses that you end up receiving.
