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)
for ny experiance that fist pic is computer cleanig and 2nd is pic whithout cleanning.
lol i thought right was man :o
For those saying the face is “definitely” male or female, it’s not, it’s the face average of many people of both genders.
They both look female to me.
I agree wiuth both Leopold and Ye Olde Cake. I mean I could’ve easily just posted a picture of me with my face down or pulled back and a little hair above the lip and who would know the difference. Plus, I am intersexed. I like the study and thought it was two people, a male and female, at first. Oddly enough, I would find either ‘attractive’.
lol I thought both looked female, also because of the eyebrows, I think.
But I figured the one on the right was more “male”..but I couldn’t figure out why!
not really. i ran a contrast and luiminance test untill i matched the skin color in photoshop and then overlayed the foto of the left which is supposed to perceived as feminine on the one to the right, using a difference algorythm
what surprise !!! not only has it higher contrast, but if you look really closely they have darkened around the eyes and the lips as well on the left slightly. as women are normally always seen wearing make up, of course the mayor outcome is that this picture would be perceived as female.
so this is all a bunch of bullshit
alex, you’re a bloody idiot. They turned the contrast up in the left image. Meaning where there are shadows, such as around the lips and eyes, the shadows darken slightly. The white/highlighted parts of the face lighten. the contrast between the two is going to increase, so yeah, it looks like they darkened the shadowed areas. Your “difference algorythm” would only work if you had the original image to test. And you don’t. It is not as if this is a ground-breaking enough study for them to lie about that. It is nothing but a contrast change between the two photos.
yeah, increasing contrast lessens the range of gray in an image, making whites brighter and blacks darker. therefore defining highlights and darkening shadows. lower contrast creates an increased range of gray in the image creating a softer look
The left pic looks female because the higher contrast makes it look like it’s wearing makeup — eyeshadow, eyebrows done, and lipstick.
they both look female
Yeah , I agree they Both Looks Like a Female!!!
I wonder if more contrast just looks female because women wear makeup, not the other way around…
I actually saw the contrast change and could tell why it was an illusion before reading the explanation :)
come on guys ! its obvious !
Screw it….Id bang both of em..
lol Alex you’re amazing
@ alex lol yeah there both hot either way
I think it’s not only lips showing the difference. Eyebrows too. Females tend to have neater/thinner eyebrows. The fact that left picture is lighter, it affect the eyebrows, they become faded which give the illusion of neater lines. Anyways, female features usually perceived more softer and ligher, so there is no doubt why left photo look like female.
Higher contrast creates the illusion of lip colour and eyelashes. Which is still largely makeup-related (guys’ eyelashes are just as long as girls are), but it makes sense.
omg the “man” looks like nick jonas!!!!
they are both the same picture, the face on the left looks more like a woman because of the light differences:D
yeah it’s the difference in lighting on the face that shows the emphasis on gender in these two pictures, apparently.
I think the one on the left is a female face and the one on the right I could see either way. Great illusion