Emu and Koala

Someone’s watching you – these animal faces follow you about in this perspective illusion.

Explanation

Our brains use past information along with present information to make sense of what we see. We are used to seeing faces that have protruding noses. When a normal face turns to watch us, the nose points towards us and it doesn’t obscure much of the rest of the face.

When you look at the inside-out faces, the noses are the furthest point from you so they cannot obscure the other parts of the face no matter which angle you look from. However, the noses align with the rest of the features as if the faces are turned towards us.

Our brains interpret this using our past knowledge of how faces work and decide that the faces are turning to watch us.

Things to Try

Duck down and look at the faces from a lower vantage point as well.

Questions to Ask

Have you ever seen paintings where the eyes appear to stare at you? What would you think of a painting where the face appears to turn to follow you around?

Emu and Koala
Our brains expect the two faces to have protruding features... but here, they don’t!

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