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477
478

Facial illusion (i.imgur.com)

submitted ago by SinSha

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[–]lazydictionary 46 points47 points ago

It's the lips. Woman usually have more red or darkness in their lips -- or maybe I'm just used to most woman wearing lipstick.

[–]Guitar_Jack 13 points14 points ago

The shading on the left also makes it look like there's eye shadow.

[–]xtinalala 12 points13 points ago

Right. It's not an overall contrast added. The left has shading that is reminiscent of make up.

[–]WarPhalange 2 points3 points ago

Eyebrows. Women usually don't have really thick dark eyebrows whereas men don't care. The higher contrast makes the eyebrows darker.

[–]onemoreclick 1 point2 points ago

Lips are same colour so they definitely pick and chose what they lighten.

[–]setsura12 22 points23 points ago

they both look like soft faced guys to me.

[–]cheshirelaugh 64 points65 points ago

They both look like males to me.

[–]orzamil 17 points18 points ago

Did not realize there was a difference until I read that there was supposed to be.

[–]TuskedOdin -1 points0 points ago

I could see a difference in the lips and the different skin tone, but I don't usually care about genders

[–]thtgyovrthr 0 points1 point ago

anybody care to explain the reasoning behind the downvotes?

[–]Ididnotresurface 10 points11 points ago

They both look female to me.

[–]pbhj 1 point2 points ago

Same here, the left one looks like it's in soft focus though.

[–]Ogow 2 points3 points ago

I thought the left was like a 12 year old boy, and right the same boy a few years older.

[–]cheshirelaugh 0 points1 point ago

I also noticed this after another look.

[–]NotSiZhe 1 point2 points ago

Same here, though decided they looked kinda androgynous quickly and settle on male for both slowly.

[–]xraymind -1 points0 points ago

Same here. Maybe because I grew up in San Francisco?

[–]ewat85 15 points16 points ago

In other breaking news: Baby with bow on forehead perceived to be a girl!

[–]mynamejesse1334 5 points6 points ago

honestly this illusion still blows my mind

they're the same color, place finger over where they touch to see it

[–]TheWillbilly9 10 points11 points ago

To me, it looks like the shading isn't the same between the two.

[–]SinSha[S] 2 points3 points ago

That's the point: the different shading makes them look of different genders.

[–]bozarklette 17 points18 points ago

point is, its not just "higher contrast". its deliberately shaded differently.

[–]jpellett251 5 points6 points ago

No. Look at the lips. The description says that the male is higher contrast, but the contrast is clearly higher between the lips and the rest of the face on the female. The male has higher contrast around the eyes and nose.

[–]AllTheDamnTime 0 points1 point ago

Yea, Maury taught me about shading when I stayed home sick from school and The Price is Right was over.

[–]shanoxilt -3 points-2 points ago

If you'd like to discuss the arbitrary nature of gender classifications, you should check out /r/QueerConlangers.

[–]Atomic_elephant 3 points4 points ago

I think its they eyebrows, on the right they are darker and appear thicker while the ones on the left are lighter and appear plucked.

[–]dialpopcornfortime 2 points3 points ago

It is common in art for an artist painting a couple to paint the woman a shade lighter than the man. I don't know why. It isn't all the time, but once it is pointed out to you, you'll notice it more. Here are a few examples: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klimt/kiss/klimt.kiss.jpg and http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Adam-and-Eve-1932-large.jpg and http://www.oilpaintingsframes.com/images/148-PB119_JPG.jpg.

In the above pictures I think the left looks more female because the eyelid area is more pronounced. Women tend to have more space between the eye and the eyebrow.

[–]Obscure_Lyric 0 points1 point ago

The ancient Egyptians did this too. Women were depicted as pale, while men were colored red.

[–]dmurr -1 points0 points ago

the one on the right is male, and the left is J BIEBS

[–]Azkaland 1 point2 points ago

I stopped reading after I imagined their eyes were following me.

[–]rclosurez -1 points0 points ago

Obviously done before people were openly gay. I can't tell

[–]mariovct 0 points1 point ago

Its cause the one on the left looks more pale. Like its wearing makeup. Investigation: SOLVED

[–]ForestGnome4 0 points1 point ago

i certainly can't tell which is male or female. Maybe it's because i didn't spend my high school years staring slack-jawed at every woman i saw.

[–]ChappyWagon 0 points1 point ago

If it didn't look like she was wearing lipstick, I might be surprised.

[–]kraytex 0 points1 point ago

If you cross your eyes so both of the images line up, you can see that the eyes and the lips don't match up exactly.

[–]chantistar 0 points1 point ago

I thought they were both dudes

[–]alleycatsphinx 0 points1 point ago

It has to do with the severity and depth of facial features. Larger bone structure and less fat lead to contrast in the image of a face.

These structural differences are naturally the result of hormone driven growth, and therefore reflect gender.

Our brains are aware of the differences, and thus increasing the contrast makes a face look more male. Ask any sketch artist.

[–]AllDizzle 1 point2 points ago

This isn't simply a contrast change, the lips appear to remain the same color on both of them (or perhaps even slightly darker on the "female" side.

Also the male has more accentuated shading around his eyes due to the contrast giving more value to darks there, which accents his eye brow ridges.

This doesn't seem legit to me.

[–]amjhwk 0 points1 point ago

they both look like women to me

[–]k4hill 0 points1 point ago

Wild!

[–]WoolaDizary 0 points1 point ago

Oh. I saw two women...

[–]killermorris 0 points1 point ago

The text is awkwardly worded, there is no 'contrast' difference, merely shading. Also, it doesn't explain in any way why we would recognize a 'higher contrast' as more male, which is why this would be interesting at all.

[–]biggithzerai 0 points1 point ago

I couldn't see any difference between them other than image contrast, until i read the text and now i cant help but see one as male and one as female even though i know my initial view of them was actually the correct one.... help

[–]SprechenSieDich 0 points1 point ago

I saw two females...

[–]Gunpla00 0 points1 point ago

i still see two men...

[–]bitbotbot 0 points1 point ago

Interesting, but not an optical illusion.

[–]WhaleMeatFantasy 0 points1 point ago

I can't see the facial.

[–]gloomdoom 0 points1 point ago

This isn't the illusion of the century. Maybe it's our access to photo editing software these days but I don't even see it as something I would even think about if I saw them outside of the context and explanation of the caption.

Just looks like two guys, one possibly wearing some makeup.

[–]Agasti 0 points1 point ago

This is to be expected. People since their childhoods see that women faces are fairer and with less contrast from all the creams, lotion and time they spend avoiding the sun or anything that could damage their skin. On the other hands males don't give a shit in general so their faces will be naturally more "characterized" (damaged skin).

So we learn to instinctively associate contrasted faces as male and fair smooth faces as female.

[–]manniefesto 0 points1 point ago

Cross your eyes.

:>

[–]Mikes_friend_Tyler 0 points1 point ago

I see a male on the right and Justin Beiber on the left

[–]NukedSoda 0 points1 point ago

False. High contrast is female, low contrast is male.

[–]steph-was-here -1 points0 points ago

They both look like Nick Jonas to me.

[–]dtam21 1 point2 points ago

Just hedge your bets and fap to both.

[–]jp07 1 point2 points ago

Now kiss!

[–]DaBears128 -4 points-3 points ago

Am I the only one who thinks they both legitimately look like Justin Bieber?

[–]Jaysharples -1 points0 points ago

Surely it's because we're used to men having facial hair which makes their faces appear darker??

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