If you are on social media sites such as Facebook, you will find one thing that happens often. You will find optical illusion tests. You see tests involving the number of animals one sees in a picture as the optical illusion would make you see a different number of animals than other people would. There is the one with the butterfly, and there are many other well-known ones. However, the famous optical illusion that involves the one of the old woman or young girl is the most famous one, and depending on how you see it, it depends on your age.
Before explaining that more, the way you look at that picture all depends on your facial perception. There will either be a young woman looking away or you see an old woman who is in a solemn state looking towards the left side of the image. But you cannot see both at the same time.
When you look at the picture carefully, you see that the young woman’s chin doubles which conversely appears to be the nose of the older woman. And the older woman’s chin can also be the chest of the young woman. Now, the question is why do you see either the young woman or the old woman first? That depends on your age.
Your Age Really Does Depend On How You See The Optical Illusion
Two psychology professors conducted a study in Australia in 2018 that made this determination. The findings were that younger individuals would see the younger woman first. The older people in the study found the older person first. In the study, there were close to 400 participants where there were over 240 males and just over 140 females from the ages of 18 to 68. The median age of participants was 32, and the individuals were shown the image for half of a second. Then the researchers asked them what they saw regarding age and gender.
Most of the participants saw the younger woman first and that was because they were also young. Researchers separated the participants and ten percent of the oldest and ten percent of the youngest doing the survey had different findings. The older part of the group immediately found the older woman and the younger part of the group immediately saw the younger woman. What does that mean if the younger participants saw the younger woman and the older participants saw the older woman?
Age Bias Played A Role
There is no doubt that the findings of the survey made the determination that age bias and relating to others of the same age was why the younger people saw the younger woman and vice versa with the older group. The truth is there. When you are at a certain age, you will relate more to those who are in the same age bracket as you are. That goes for the young and the old.
That also goes back to the assumption that younger people don’t have respect for the elderly. Even though unfortunately, there is truth to that, that is not the entire reason either. People cannot relate to others who are not in the same age bracket as them. That is why younger people who are not known to be disrespectful may still come off as dismissive towards older people.
That is because there is a lack of the ability to relate to them. Even though older people have once been young, they no longer have anything in common with younger people and cannot relate to the ones today. That is because the ones that the older people grew up with had different values and beliefs than the younger people do today. That is why there is an age bias and it shows through this optical illusion.
