Old lady and young lady illusion meaning

A Century-Old Optical Illusion: Find the images of an old woman a young girl hidden in this Century Old Optical Illusion Image. Can you solve the brain-hurting illusion in 20 seconds?

A Century-Old Optical Illusion: An optical illusion is a visual illustration that has different appearances looked with different perspectives. There are many types of optical illusions like physical, physiological, and cognitive illusions. The optical illusions can also depict philosophical reasons behind any perception. A normal human brain can look at things or images differently from a variety of angles forming a different perception for each view.  One such clever illustration can be seen in a century-old German Postcard.

Can you Spot all Hidden Faces in this Optical Illusion Image?

Do you see an Old Woman or a Young Girl in this Optical Illusion?

A century-old German postcard had a picture of a woman that said: “that in every young woman, there is the promise of the woman she will grow into, and in every older woman, there is the memory of the young woman she once was”.

This anonymous German postcard is from 1888. It is a famous perceptual illusion in which the brain switches between seeing a young girl and an old woman. This fascinating illustration has two answers. Some folks, upon glancing at the drawing, immediately see a young woman. Others instantly know that it’s an illustration of an old woman. Both the interpretations are right. You can see the image of a young girl and an old woman too with different angles.

Stairs Optical Illusion: Can you guess in 10 seconds which way is the object moving?

If you see the young woman: look at the young woman's chin and think of it as a large nose, and look at the young woman's ear and think of it as an eye. If you see the old woman: look at the old woman's nose, and think of it as the left cheek of a face looking away from you, and look at the old woman's eye and think of it as an ear on a face looking away from you. Let’s first look at the image of the young girl in this optical illusion:

Did you spot a Young Girl?

If you look at the red outline in the above image, you can see a young girl looking away over her left shoulder, with a bow hat and its lace flowing behind her.

Did you spot an Old Woman?

Now, if you look at the red outline in the above image, you will see the other angle of the drawing showcasing the face of an old woman. By looking closely at the image you will see a profile of an older woman with a stooped face bending downwards and her face, and nose is comparatively bigger.

You can easily see how the two opposing images fit into the same space. The young woman’s chin becomes the older woman’s nose, and the older woman’s chin becomes the younger woman’s neckline. Young woman’s ears become older woman’s eyes and so on.

Check Top 5 Online Brain Games Played across the world

You should experience a 'Gestalt switch' between seeing the image as an old woman or a young woman. In psychology, a gestalt shift is when your perception suddenly changes.

Optical illusions always give some fascinating insight into how our brains work. Specific combinations of color, light, and patterns can trick our brains into visually perceiving something that isn’t there. So tell us, which woman did you see first?

What do you see in the image - an old lady or a young girl? 

Key Highlights

• It's an old woman. No, it's a young lady!

• According to a 2018 study, what you see in this optical illusion depends on your age

• A majority of older people find the old woman first, while the younger people look at the young girl first

Optical illusions go viral on the Internet every now and then, leaving people scratching their heads. A popular type of illusion is an image that produces two different things to different people. From the pink shoe that appeared to be blue (or the other way round) to many of your friends to the image of a broken car door that appears to be that of a beach with a stormy sky, we have had a hard time thinking about what exactly they are.

Now, another similar image of an optical illusion has gone viral on social media. Take a look at this picture:

What do you see?

Did you look into the eye of an old woman? Or did you see a young woman staring back into the distance?

A 2018 study published by two psychology professors at Flinders University, Australia, found that older people notice the old woman first, while younger people see the young girl figure.

The research involved 393 participants from the ages of 18 to 68. The participants were shown the 'My Wife or My Mother-in-Law' image for half a second and then were asked to tell the gender and age of the figure they spotted in the picture first.

The aim of the research was to find out if "own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level."

Professor Mike Nicholls, who was part of the research, said, "What we found was that young people tended to see the young lady in the image, whereas with older people they tended to see the old lady."

Are you still looking for the other image?

Well, the older woman's nose is also the younger woman's chin. What appears to be the older woman's eye is also the younger woman's ear. While the older woman is hooded, the younger lady is wearing a fancy hat.

Nicholls explained, "Everyone has their own in-groups and out-groups. Young people tend to have an in-group which focuses on other young people and old people tend to have a group focusing on older people. We think this subconscious bias is what you would see in one of the images."

He added, "So even people who might think that they are being balanced or fair about a person's age - what we are showing is it seems to be subconscious."

When the participants were separated into the oldest 10 per cent and the youngest 10 per cent, the researchers found the majority of the older set saw the older woman first, with the younger group spotting the younger woman.

What did you see in the image when you first looked at it?

What do you see first old lady or young lady?

What are the 4 types of illusion?

What is the most famous illusion?

What U See first determines your personality?