10 Mind-Blowing Optical Illusions That Went Viral

We love mind-bending tricks at SPYSCAPE so we’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite to share - including what may be the oldest optical illusion in history.

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1. Afterimage Optical Illusion

Keep your eyes on the black cross on the left-hand image for 30 seconds. Then shift your eyes to the right side. Trippy, right? It’s called an ‘afterimage’, which is the image you see after staring at an object then looking away. Scientific American has the full explanation but, basically, it has to do with the way we perceive color using cells in the back of our eyes called ‘cone cells’.
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2. Mystery animal illusion

Twitter fell for this cute image of a man stroking a…. bird? Bunny rabbit? The Tweet was viewed more than 14m times but some people still can’t work out exactly what kind of animal they’re seeing. Check out the video Tweet or skip straight to the answer below. 
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3. Hidden words

Only 1% of people can read what’s hidden in this image. Can you? TikTok went mad for this optical illusion. Test your eyes to see if you can come up with the solution. No? Try squinting. If you’re still not sure, click on the link here to view the TikTok video or check the answers at the bottom of this page. 
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4. 3D Hole Hand

This cool 3D Hole Optical Illusion has been viewed almost 50m times on YouTube and we can see why. Within two minutes you will learn how to create a similar illusion. If you’re a fan, try the 3D Heart Hole option as well. 

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5. What color is this dress? ‍

This classic optical illusion is known as ‘The Dress That Broke the Internet’ in 2015. Do you think this dress is blue and black? Or is it white and gold? (Answer at the bottom.) This dress caused such a commotion after being posted on Tumblr that several peer-reviewed articles were published in the Journal of Vision. The short explanation is that your brain determines color based on two things: i) the color of the object, and ii) the color of the light source. Depending on whether your brain saw the dress in shadow or direct light, you'd see the colors differently.
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6. Warped tiles‍

A company in Manchester, England wanted to stop people running in the hallway to their showroom, so they installed this crazy optical illusion using 400 tiles. The image soon went viral on Reddit. The ‘dent’ in the floor disappears if you look at the tiles from a different perspective but how does it work? (Answer at the bottom.) 

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7. What do you see first? ‍

Itsme.fuzz has built a following of more than 110,000 viewers and 2.8m likes on TikTok, largely based on his series of quizzes and insights involving optical illusions. What did you see first - a tiger or the trees? A woman playing the saxophone or a face? Test yourself to find out more about your personality. The answer to the tiger/saxophone question is also below.

8. World’s oldest optical illusion‍

A bas-relief sculpture may be the world’s oldest optical illusion. It too is based on the ‘What did you see first?’ test. The 850-year-old Airavatesvara Temple in India houses a remarkable piece of art that can be seen as either an elephant or a bull, an ambiguous brain teaser for the ages.

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9. Donkey? Seal? Mermaid?

This image divided Twitter and the Internet - even JK Rowling, Piers Morgan, and Stephen Fry joined in the debate about what, exactly, they were seeing. Rowling believes: “If you're right-brained, you'll see a fish. If you're left-brained you'll see a mermaid.” Other viewers saw up to six possible creatures in the illusion. What do you see? (Answer below.) 

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10. How many numbers can you see? ‍

This optical illusion tests your eyesight and measures contrast sensitivity, which allows people to perceive the difference between objects and their backgrounds. How many numbers can you spot? 
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BONUS:

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Body transfer illusion

While this Twitter video isn’t strictly an optical illusion, we’re including it as a bonus. It’s called a ‘body transfer illusion’ which gives the illusion of owning a part - or entire body - other than one's own. The video racked up more than 2m views in a day, so don’t be the last of your friends to watch it!
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