Flashed face distortion effect

Video of the effect

The flashed face distortion effect is a visual illusion in which ordinary human faces appear grotesque, distorted and caricature-like, when the images flash in the periphery, while the viewer specifically focuses on the cross midway between the two faces.

A 2019 paper in Scientific Reports found that the effect is equally strong when the faces are upside down. This suggests that the effect is independent of the face perception functionality of the human brain, which tends to react much stronger to right-side up faces than to inverted faces.

References

↑ Diaz, Jesus (2011-07-08). "This Freaky Optical Illusion Turns People Into Horrible Monsters". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2025-03-10.
↑ "Perception abstract". Perceptionweb.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2013-08-06.
↑ Purcell, Dean G.; Stewart, Alan L. (1986). "The face-detection effect". Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 24 (2): 118–120. doi:10.3758/BF03330521.
↑ Balas, Benjamin; Pearson, Hannah (7 February 2019). "The Flashed Face Distortion Effect Does Not Depend on Face-Specific Mechanisms". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 1612. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.1612B. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-37991-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6367465. PMID 30733511.

This optics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[1] Diaz, Jesus (2011-07-08). "This Freaky Optical Illusion Turns People Into Horrible Monsters". Gizmodo. Retrieved 2025-03-10.

[2] "Perception abstract". Perceptionweb.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2013-08-06.

[3] Purcell, Dean G.; Stewart, Alan L. (1986). "The face-detection effect". Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society. 24 (2): 118–120. doi:10.3758/BF03330521.

[4] Balas, Benjamin; Pearson, Hannah (7 February 2019). "The Flashed Face Distortion Effect Does Not Depend on Face-Specific Mechanisms". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 1612. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.1612B. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-37991-9. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6367465. PMID 30733511.