Hey people! Just came home from Korcula island. I had a great time, except it was the worst moment to have hosting problems (when images were down). Gladly, all is fixed now! Let’s proceed with new post… In the Illusion of Sex Change, by Richard Russell of Harvard University, two faces are perceived as male and female. However, rest assured that the both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face (neither male, nor female). One face was created by increasing the contrast of the androgynous face, while the other face was created by decreasing the contrast. The face with more contrast is perceived as female, while the face with less contrast is perceived as male. The Illusion of Sex Change demonstrates that contrast is an important cue for perceiving the sex of a face, with greater contrast appearing feminine, and lesser contrast appearing masculine. This optical illusion won the prize in 2009 optical illusion contest as well.
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Really cool illusion indeed… love your site
Very cool.
Bizarre…
this illusion totally freaks me out
There is no sex change! It’s not a sex, it’s a face.
sorry… I couldn’t keep it to myself…
how did they get the androgynous fsce in the first place then? this illusion is quite good – i can understand why it won a prize
strange… think that the right one looks more male and the one with lesser contrast looks female
The face on the left has darker lips, making it look as though “she” is wearing lipstick. Just an observation.
I disagree with this illusion. I tried this on my own with Photoshop. I grabbed the face on the right and did a contrast move on it. It’s still looked like a guy. What they did on the right face was contrast, but they also left lipstick and eye shadow darkening. That’s cheating.
Hmm, must just be me but looks like the same pic but with the contrast changed! Both look female to me. Hope that doesn’t make me odd!
sweeet!!! :P
I dunno, to me it looks like the more contrast face is the male one and the less contrast face is the female one.
lol I was just saying that they’re the same faces but one is darker than the other when I read your post and realized that’s exactly what you said…welll not exactly but pretty close. It’s a great illusion but I wonder why people’s faces are percieved as so???? They actually looked like twins to me…
She´s cute… Does that make me gay?
Great illusion!
It’s not a perfect illusion; The left one still looks like a guy to me.
enlightening… I never knew contrast played such an imporant role in perception… kewl!
This illusion is cool!
I’ve always wondered, i mean what is the real difference between a man and a womans face that allows us to tell the difference? We all have 2 eyes, a nose etc. but yeah- so this illusion is cool! The shadows make a huge difference!
Glad this site is back up and running! But I really think that the systems being down is really rare- migrating is a tad too far. However, if you think it’s for the greater benefit of this site, then i’m backing you all the way :)
Well, that is the reason why we women wear make up ;-).
i always wanted to know what i look like as a boy. now i know it’s how i look without make up on! thanks joe!
Maybe the higher conrast seems female because women use cosmetics to accent their features? The image on the left looks like there could be just a bit of eyeliner, eye shadow, and lipstick.
One of the best illusions in a while…
Not entirely sure what is meant by more or less contrast but to me at a first glance the left (lighter one) seems more feminine and the right (darker one) seems more masculine.
But after looking at them both a couple of times i can now look at either one and see a male or a female face.
This might explain why women wear more make-up. Cuz we want to look more feminine.
Weird. I wonder if that’s why it’s easier for a man to (purely facialy) pass as a woman, when wearing make-up? The make up adds contrast to the faces of the more androgenous male face. Thinking just in film and music videos, I can’t think of a convincing female-to-male look without extensive prosthetics and/or elaborate skin texture make up (which presumably reduces contrast). Or it could mean that we just like our stars bishōnen.
is the left one supposed to be the female, and the right the male?
That is pretty cool… but I was afraid to look at this one because it had a word in the title that made it seem like this was an innapropiate blog entry. Please only use “Gender” when you mean that. Thanks.
My brain must be broken, cause they both look female to me. One has make-up on, and the other has darker brows and no make-up on.
both look like guys to me
and Im a guy and NOT GAY but they’re both guys
That’s amazing, and so simple.
Actually I can’t tell one from the other. But I often have difficulty telling males from females in photos (and sometimes in real life).
really weird.
Amazing what a little light can do… loved it
Wha…Now that is very interesting. I never thought about that. Very Cool
This is one of the best illusions I have seen.
Meet girl during the day, go on date, looks like dude at night
Ummm… Weird!
Hmmmm, not an illusion at all. I just see two faces from which I could not tell if they are male or female.
Bloody awesome. For some reason the lower contrast (man) looks more defined or broader or something…
THAT IS SO CREEPY.
Whiter face looks female,because lips appear darker,like she’s wearing lipstick. I think.
Is that why we are called the fairer sex!!!
For me both are female faces…
Ou man! THAT’S awsome
This is the best illusion in ages!
This is a cultural bias thing. Women tend to accentuate their facial features more than men do. Since the left image has stronger contrast, we assume it’s female.
this is very scary….ITS THE SAME FACE!!!! but its not…
Both look like Females to me…
That is pretty amazing!
It has as much to do with the fact that both pictures are next to each other as it does how they edited the contrast of each image. Cover either image with your hand and the other looks fairly androgynous.
It’s really crazy
“His” lips look paler than “hers,” and this seems really key to me. Amazing!