Colour perception illusions occur because our brains interpret visual information based on context, lighting and prior experience, rather than simply processing the raw data from our eyes. These illusions exploit how our visual system interprets colour under different conditions. In the examples shown, the colours in question appear different depending on the surrounding colours.
The anime faces are courtesy of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a Japanese psychologist and professor at the College of Letters at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. The faces have the same skin colour. Don’t you think that’s wild?
The Checker Shadow Illusion shows two squares that are objectively the same colour, but one appears darker due to a shadow cast on it and the surrounding lighter tiles. Our brain adjusts the perceived colour to account for lighting and shadow, assuming the object's true colour is different from what we physically see.
In a previous issue of REMORANDOM we featured The Dress [RR3:25], a famously viral example of a phenomenon where the brain maintains the perception of consistent colours in varying lighting conditions. This ability is called “colour constancy”. The dress illusion (gold/white v. blue/black) occurs because some people interpret the lighting as warm (daylight) and others as cool (shadowed light). The brain adjusts the perceived colour of an object to remain constant under different light sources.
In addition to being generally fascinating, these illusions also highlight how our senses often aren’t sufficient when determining the truth.
Australian creative director Mike Finch, whose 18 November 2024 Facebook post alerted us to the anime faces, gives the illusion a political context:
“Intolerable inconvenience in one country/context could feel like extreme privilege in other countries/contexts. Live in a homogenous white society and a “black” person (or a “black opinion”) sticks out. Everything is relative.”
So, nothing is certain until you dig deep enough to find the absolutes.
Story Idea: Mike Finch
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References
psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/akitaoka/saishin72e
medium.com/sketch-app-sources/can-you-believe-your-eyes-38ba29421426
dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7159521/Can-tell-color-spheres-new-optical-illusion-baffling-internet
community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/3191015
Images
1. Anime faces by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, 2024. The faces have the same skin colour. See also Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s Rotating Snakes [RR2:64].
2. The Checker Shadow Illusion. In the first image the A and B squares have different backgrounds, but in the second image with shadow the background greys for A and B are exactly the same.
3. Illusion by David Novick, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin. The spheres are pink but appear to be different colours when overlaid with variously coloured lines.
4. The Dress photo next to a studio shot version of the same dress. Read more about The Dress in RR3 at [25].
