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SligPants t1_j8fafqt wrote

turn rightside up at your own risk

(this is called the Thatcher Effect)

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SHRED-209 t1_j8ffurr wrote

I just looked up more examples of the Thatcher Effect. That shit is wild.

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Kallium19 t1_j8flhls wrote

Why does it work though?

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moonra_zk t1_j8fwnvb wrote

I'd guess because the face features are right side up it looks normal to our brain, so it focuses on that, but when you turn it upside down it focuses on how fucking weird it looks.

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RazzZzatam t1_j8g6b64 wrote

To be more specific, the brain has an entire region dedicated to recognizing faces in the fusiform gyrus. When upside-down that region is not fully activated, as the orientation doesn't correspond to the brains idea of what a face is (two eyes above a nose and mouth). Because of this, the brain fills in some gaps. When inverted the face region activates and basically tells the rest of the brain something is wrong.

Fun fact on this topic: Humans aren't born with the ability to discern specifically human faces, but are born with a tendency to look at faces so as to develop this skill better. And yet in the same breath, early infants can discern between similar faces on other species (tested with pictures of a type of monkey) that even individuals who spend their lives researching the species may not be able to detect.

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ManicTypist t1_j8gi49i wrote

That's fascinating. Do you have any further reading that talks about the studies??

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RazzZzatam t1_j8gt9f7 wrote

In regards to the monkey study, I believe it was prior to ~6 months old, when habituated to the image of a monkey, babies still showed increase response as they would to a novel stimulus when shown a slightly different monkey of the same species, whereas older infants showed no increased response. Sadly, I can't provide any readings, as I'm just spouting off the things I've learned in university so far.

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ManicTypist t1_j8guk79 wrote

That's really interesting. Babies are organic processors overclocking shit until they chill tf out after they're "unboxed" (born). Biology is fascinating. Appreciate the knowledge!

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DingDongDideliDanger t1_j8g559l wrote

I doubt this is the Thatcher Effect because I'm lacking the sudden urge to get arrested for public urination

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ManicTypist t1_j8ghyjz wrote

YESS I love the Thatcher Effect, it's so funny, I made a bunch of Thatcher Effect memes for my own personal uselol

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