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Related Experiment Videos

Antigravity hills are visual illusions.

Paola Bressan1, Luigi Garlaschelli, Monica Barracano

  • 1Università di Padova, Padova, Italy. paola.bressan@unipd.it

Psychological Science
|August 22, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Antigravity hills are optical illusions, not gravitational anomalies. Our experiments show these "spook hills" effects result from misperceiving eye level due to surrounding inclines or a false horizon.

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Area of Science:

  • Perception Science
  • Geophysics
  • Physics

Background:

  • Antigravity hills, or "spook hills," create the illusion of vehicles rolling uphill.
  • These phenomena are often mistakenly attributed to unusual gravitational forces.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the scientific basis of antigravity hill phenomena.
  • To determine if these effects are due to visual illusions or actual gravitational anomalies.

Main Methods:

  • Replicated known antigravity hill types in a laboratory setting using tabletop models.
  • Systematically varied road visibility, slant, and horizon height across four experiments.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that antigravity hill effects can be reproduced through controlled visual manipulation.
  • Identified specific visual cues that contribute to the illusion of uphill movement.

Conclusions:

  • Antigravity hill effects are a result of visual misperception, not gravitational anomalies.
  • The illusion is caused by a misjudgment of the true horizontal, influenced by contextual inclines or a false horizon line.

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