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clock-iconPUBLISHEDApril 18, 2016

This Optical Illusion Is Baffling The Internet: Can You Tell What Colors These Hearts Are?

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Tom Hale

Tom has a Master's degree in Journalism. His editorial work covers anything from archaeology and the environment to technology and culture.

Senior Journalist

Tom has a Master's degree in Journalism. His editorial work covers anything from archaeology and the environment to technology and culture.View full profile

Tom has a Master's degree in Journalism. His editorial work covers anything from archaeology and the environment to technology and culture.

View full profile
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Bite Size Psych/Youtube

Take a look at the picture above. It may look like alternating purple and orange hearts, but the hearts are actually all the same color.

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Not convinced? Check out the video by Bite Size Psych below to see how the hearts look without the striped bars.  As they explain, it’s all to do with the striped bars. Around the purple hearts, the bars are blue, while around the orange heart, the bars are green.

This little mind trick, like most optical illusions, gives a fascinating insight into how our visual system works. Far from our perception of color being objective, our perception can be twisted depending on its context and surroundings. As you can see in the video, there are more than a few examples of this.  

 

 


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