Old Woman or Young Girl? What You See In This Optical Illusion Reveals How Old You Are

Welcome to one of the oldest, classic, and most famous optical illusion tests. Old woman or young girl? What you see first reveals how old are you. Are you ready to rack your brain? 

See W. E. Hill’s illustration below and say what you see first and how many figures are hidden in it. A century-old optical illusion will reveal how sharp is your brain and how old are you. 

Optical illusion test – Take a look at the image below and say what you see first – Old woman or young girl?

Now scroll below to see what it reveals about you!

1. A young girl looking over her right shoulder

2. Old lady looking ahead

What did you see first? A young girl or old lady?  Were you able to see both figures? 

Millions of people across the world admire this popular old woman or young girl optical illusion that was first seen on an 1888 German postcard. In 1915, British cartoonist William Ely Hill, adapted this image and published it in Puck, an American humor magazine with the title “My Wife and My Mother-in-Law.” It is also known as the boring figure. 

Thanks to the internet, this old illustration has gone viral. The majority of the people visualized the young girl but failed to notice the old lady or mother-in-law hidden throughout the image.

(Remember that it is not possible to see two images at a time. You can only see either young women or the old woman in one glance.) 

The point here is if you can spot two figures or not. 

People who have an eye for detail and a sharp mind can see both women in this image. 

Could you? No?

Do you need a hint?
Okay, now carefully see the young lady’s necklace, it is the old woman’s mouth. 

Still couldn’t see?
Don’t worry, here is another hint for you. 
The young woman’s chin doubles as the nose of the old woman. 

Really tricky, isn’t it? Need more hints?
Fine, this is the last one. The younger woman’s chest is the older woman’s chin. see the modified image below

Now see the detailed image below.

If you could see both women now then pat yourself on the back for being so patient, attentive and observant. If you still couldn’t see both figures then don’t be disappointed. Your age affects how you see this optical illusion. 

Old woman or young girl optical illusion reveals how old are you

A 2018 study conducted at Flinders University in Australia claims that the woman you see first is influenced by your age. 

• Those who belong to the age group 18 – 30 –  are highly likely to see the young woman first
• People over 30 – are highly likely to spot the older woman first.

How does age affect how you see optical illusions?

The researchers hired 393 U.S. people (242 males, 141 females) between the ages of 18 and 68 for this test (the team used an online crowdsourcing platform – Amazon’s Mechanical Turk).

All the participants were shown the illusion for half a second and were asked to estimate the gender and age of the person that they saw in the image.

Most participants saw the younger lady in the picture first and the reason could be that many of the participants were on the younger side. Later the researchers separated the youngest 10% and the oldest 10% of those surveyed. The researchers found that the youngest 10 percent of participants estimated the woman’s age to be 12.1 years younger than the oldest 10 percent of participants did.

Now, those who spotted the older lady first in the above optical illusion test, please know you are as young as you feel. 

According to the above Australian study, “own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level.” It is a human tendency to recognize and process faces from ages similar to our own more thoroughly and holistically than those of other ages. As per researchers, the results may have been influenced by sociocultural practices in the U.S. that tend to be less inclusive to older adults.

Are you unable to see both figures? Check out the video below:

Old or young woman? What did you see first? Let us know in the comments below. If you enjoyed the optical illusion test feel free to share the post with your friends.

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