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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 22, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
06:53

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation

Published on: March 1, 2017

A new "fat face" illusion.

Yu-Hao Sun1, Liezhong Ge, Paul C Quinn

  • 1Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.

Perception
|May 23, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

A novel fat face illusion shows that vertically aligned identical faces appear to widen at the bottom. This visual perception effect, specific to upright faces, suggests unique processing of facial features.

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Area of Science:

  • Visual perception
  • Psychophysics
  • Cognitive neuroscience

Background:

  • The human visual system processes complex stimuli like faces with specialized mechanisms.
  • Illusions provide valuable insights into the underlying neural and cognitive processes of perception.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate a novel visual illusion where vertically aligned identical faces elicit a 'fat face' perception.
  • To determine the conditions under which this illusion occurs, specifically orientation and object category.

Main Methods:

  • Participants viewed pairs of identical face images aligned vertically.
  • Image orientation (upright vs. inverted) and object category (faces vs. clocks) were manipulated.
  • Participants reported perceived changes in facial width.

Main Results:

  • A significant 'fat face' illusion was observed when faces were presented upright, with the bottom face appearing wider by approximately 4%.
  • The illusion was absent when faces were presented upside down.
  • No similar illusion was observed with upright clocks, indicating category specificity.

Conclusions:

  • The fat face illusion is a novel phenomenon demonstrating a specific visual distortion related to facial perception.
  • The illusion's dependence on upright orientation suggests involvement of higher-level facial processing mechanisms.
  • The findings indicate that this illusion is specific to faces and does not generalize to other upright objects with similar shapes.