The internet loves optical illusions. After #dressgate came #shinylegs, followed by #blurryham and #missinglegs. Now, there’s a new one, and it involves a photo of strawberries.
Take a look at the picture above. It looks great, right? A photo of red strawberries adjusted to a blue (or green???) filter. The thing is, it doesn’t have the color red in it.
Before you start arguing, there’s actually a scientific explanation to it.
2色法によるイチゴの錯視。この画像はすべてシアン色（青緑色）の画素でできているが、イチゴは赤く見える。
Strawberries appear to be reddish, though the pixels are not. pic.twitter.com/Ginyhf61F7
— Akiyoshi Kitaoka (@AkiyoshiKitaoka) February 28, 2017
The photo is from Japanese psychology professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, who says that the strawberries look red because of a concept called color constancy. He said that our brains are designed to “color correct” things despite different circumstances.
The guy clearly knows his optical illusions because that’s what he specializes in. His website even features it prominently, along with the warning, “This page contains some works of “anomalous motion illusion”, which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave this page immediately.”
This picture has NO red pixels. Great demo of color constancy (ht Akiyoshi Kitaoka) pic.twitter.com/pZHvbB6QHE
— Matt Lieberman (@social_brains) February 27, 2017
To prove that there are no red pixels in the photo, a writer isolated the “colors that appear most red” in the photo and put them against a white background.
Mind blown.
In case you were wondering, the photo is of a strawberry cake made by Kitaoka’s wife.
What do you think? Share your thoughts below!
Follow When in Manila Koji for more stories like this!
