By Vurdlak on November 25, 2007, with 122 Comments
This one has been circulating the net lately, so it would be shame if I didn’t share it with you guys as well. What is the story behind the picture below? The influence of culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception – believe it or not. This theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Africa during the late 1800′s. Take a look at the picture below – what you see will largely depend on where you live in the world. After that you have examined the picture, scroll below for a more detailed explanation. Original article can be found here.
So What Did You See – What is above the woman’s head? When scientists showed a similar sketch to people from East Africa, nearly all the participants in the experiment said she was balancing a box or metal can on her head. In a culture containing few angular visual cues, the family is seen sitting under a tree. Westerners, on the other hand, are accustomed to the corners and boxlike shapes of architecture. They are more likely to place the family indoors and to interpret the rectangle above the woman’s head as a window through which shrubbery can be seen.
(35 votes)
There appears to be a bit more to this illusion. All six characters seem to be intertwined in pairs and there is perhaps a distinct racial difference in all 3 couples which may also trick the brain from a cultural perspective.
It’s a window; it can never be a box, because the visible angles do not match the perspective, not by a fucking mile.
I think its lame.
This is stupid!!
Indeed. I saw that the family was inside of a room first. More over, at the begining I thought that the family is “european”, but after reading the last part of your comment you can easily imagine them being from Africa seating under a tree. Or not? :)
I saw the window/box as a box first then a window, I didn’t think the scribble at the top to be a tree thou. Other than that I can see a gay couple and a lesbian couple, then two kids (Presumably why the two families have met).
Then there’s a dog.
That all are true and interesting . Just not sure that is illusion.
thats sooo cool! Its also reeaaally interesting :D
Personally, It looked to me like a family being held captive. I did not notice window or tree, just that some seem to have arms behind in submission, and some do not. That is what is what I see first.
its a window. the angle of the top left corner is not angeled like a box would. it clearl shows as the inside of the wall(box would be 45 degs to the right.
westerners rule !!!!
I saw a sailboat and three pumpkins.
this is a really interesting piece, good job!
All I could focus on was that freakin Kangaroo. What the hell is he doing hanging out with those people!
all this shows to me is that the countries mentioned must have some kind of visual-spatial or artistic impairment. It is definately a window, there is no other interpretation. It is clearly drawn as a opening in a ‘wall-like’ solid. The ‘tree’ would have to be an incredibly naive drawing to be a tree. Taking into account the relative accuracy of the people it would most logically be interpreted as an interior corner of a room (even the shading of the horizontal ceiling plane verifys this).
I can see the other interpretations, but they are obviously not just ‘alternative’, but flawed and incorrect. The drawing needs to be more naive and less precise in its rending of the scene to work in this context.
This test would show: lack of artistic knowledge, lack of visual awareness, and lack of basic logic skills.
How could it be a box on her head? It very plainly is not, although it could be with the alteration of a few lines.
Not an illusion, and is a crap non-illusion at that. First time here, and won’t be back.
Nonsense. That can’t be a box, the perspective is wrong. And a tree!? Fair enough maybe not the corner of a room. This just proves that people who think differently to me are wrong.
ooo.
i saw both the first time.
at first it was the room,
but when i focused on the window, the corner seemed to look like a tree, and that the box was balanced ont he lady’s head.
interesting..
well sorry to say, but it has to be a window. to assume it was a box, makes throws out all the angles, you’re basically saying the artist can’t draw.
I get the idea of it, but when you see how well the rest of the drawing is done, the “box on head theory” fall down, that’s not down to my origin, it’s down to understanding perspective.
hey i just wanted to do the 100th comment… it seems we all agree it’s more a box than a window!
as an art student i can argue that the box above the woman is a window because it’s draw in perspective to the corner, which if was meant to be a tree is a rather poorly drawn tree. if they were outdoors, what is the purpose of the single tree in the background leaving everything else white with out a background and middle ground? that lack displaces the people. but assuming theres a window and corner, the picture makes sense.
so unless im totally not doing my job, and thers some crazy symbolism of people outdoors balancing a box under a tree…they gotta be inside
I am a Westerner, however, I travelled to Africa last year, so I could see this pic in several different ways… I really love this pic/illusion very much, thanks for sharing it and again… keep up the wonderful work! This site is AWESOME! :D
Amazing concept, love the idea of a single picture being nearly opposite depending on the culture of whoever looks a it.
I do like this one. Being from Canada I saw everything as indoors but if I see the corner as a tree then everything changes. These I do like. Makes a person think and see from another persons perspective.
This is very cool!!! I saw the “window” first so i thought it was an indoor… but i think that if the first thing i saw was the “corner” i would have thought that was a tree!!..
…pretty good “illusion”.
Eh? This is like a cross from Multiple Meanings and Spot The Object :\
thats awsome, i saw them in a house but i see how people would get the tree and how the lady is balencing a box on her head
uhh ok cool :D ITS A THUMBS UP!!
I saw a woman balancing a can on head in a room and a woman balancing a can on head outside under a tree…
Love this picture, favorite so far.
i see a woman indoors with a box on her head
i’m from europe xd
That round thing actually looks more like a picture to me :P
the *square* thing :”>
the girl has a box of stuff on her head!
Its not the right shape to be a box.
Oh my gosh!! That’s amazing!! MORE illusions like this please! I saw a window btw
It doesn’t mean nothing at all. I am Tunisian (North Africa) and I’ve seen what “Western people” are supposed to see … A family indoors and a window.
i agree with you.. i think this is a cool illusion, in that it can be seen both ways, but i am from south africa, and i saw the “western” windows and room. the description suggests that people in “africa” are rural and aren’t used to houses.
south africa is white ppl land so yeah.. of course you saw the window
um no… 2 thirds of south africa are black… why do think its white people land? apartheid? i hope not, because apartheid ended 17 years ago.
I see them sitting outside between two buildings with flat roofs. Partially because the clothes they are wearing makes it look like it’s hot, and when it’s hot you go outside for the wind. Though If I focus I can sort of see them in a room.
What, are we (Westerners) the only people that have ever seen a window or the corner of a room? This one SUCKS!!!
from the philippines. the illusion says i’m a westerner? LOL