By Vurdlak on May 19, 2009, with 105 Comments
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.
(59 votes)
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!
Interesting…
Shows how easily we jump to conclusions.
It all boils down to our brain:
Men Historically worked, and hence got tan.
Women stayed inside and ‘made’ babies.
It seems strange that the higher contrast picture does not produce a higher contrast on the lips. The “female” has darker lips than the “male.” I would think that the higher contrast would also produce a higher contrast on the lip color. Maybe that is the illusion. The more defined lips actually is what produces the more “female” appearance.
Hmmmmmmmm
I think your right.
Pretty friggin awesome
NO SHIT?
remarkable site.love it. DIETER from XANTEN.
the one on the left looks more female because the face is brighter and there is better color difference between the lips. the one on the right looks more male because all of the colors blend toghether. in the real world, females tend to have better color differences in their skin/lips because they wear lipgloss and lipstick. females also tend to wear lotions to make their skin appear brighter.
That is an amazing illusion. It sure looks like a different image but if you look at each section piece by piece sure enough it is the same image!
First to vote :) will be raiding other posts too mwhahaha- i thought this one was most interesting out of this page, so i thought i’d give this one a vote, as it doesn’t deserve nil points.
Huh, I saw it as the other way around.
Its definitely same person, same face. I cant identify now which is which. Bcoz it was edited very well. It so tough though!
i want to thank the person who did his
the roght one is male & the 2nd is female ??
is that true ?
OF course the darker image looks male. Even a very carefully shaved male face is darker just because of the beard.
While I agree that the enhanced light makes the left look slightly more femanine, both images look masculine to me.
i must admit i once considered it.
very strongly.
i don’t much about this but
i think if doctors can do this.
why not just take a mans penis and transplant it so if a woman changes to a male.
she has the real deal.
Both are female, you can see by the eyebrows. They are plucked and look very smooth. Although if you replaced the eyebrows on the ‘man’, ‘he’ would look more like a man.
DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY
This illusion shows how subtle the human mind is. Given the smallest of differences, it makes a picture of reality. Instantly it decides for you, without you having to think about it. It is not a matter of male of female, right or wrong. We live in a frenetic world of uncertainty, the brain has chosen, and it is up to you to act upon it.
Hmmmm,
I don’t think the higher contrast face looks feminine, I think both faces look male, but the higher contrast face looks like a younger male, and the low contrast face looks like an older male. This is very interesting…
HOLLY
Hmm, so how would that work with dark skinned people? or very pale skinned people?
she or he , they are one person but the photoshop can do maney thing
The man looks kinda female to me.
No wonder girls are moody. Increased contrast.
Now maybe we’ll start copying this contrast into an RGB color scheme somehow, and start making some car paints.
Remember the illusion of the lit sphere? If the top of the sphere is brighter, it looks like a ball, but if the bottom is brighter, it looks concave. That’s because our brains evolved to interpret light as coming from above (the sun).
Maybe, in the face images, the variations in shading get interpreted as subtle differences in anatomy, and that’s what gives our brains the gender cues.
This is a terrible experiment, the researchers obviously did not think through their conclusion. The male vs female appearance has nothing to do with color contrast — color contrast is incidental. In reality, the reason why the face on the left looks female and the face on the right looks male is because the “more contrasted” face looks like it is wearing makeup, which we generally associate with females. The effect is purely social priming, based on gender association with makeup, and has nothing to do with contrast.
Well she’s all you’d ever want,
She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.
She’s got style, she’s got grace, She’s a winner.
She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, She’s a Lady.
Its the same just one darker same to me
Why do you all keep saying they’re both pictures of a woman’s face or one is a man and one is a woman. They aren’t EITHER. “both faces are actually versions of the same androgynous face (neither male, nor female)”
And this is something we NATURALLY perceive. It isn’t because women “use lotions” or wear lipstick.
I think because women put on makeup and men don’t. Very simple.