Strange-face illusion
Also called: Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion · Mirror-gazing illusion
Stare at your own face in a mirror in dim light for a few minutes and it starts to distort. Most people see their features warp. Some see a stranger, an animal, or a monster.
How common
Does this happen to you?
How it works
The illusion was tested by Giovanni Caputo, an Italian psychologist, in 20103. He sat 50 people in front of a mirror in a room lit by a single dim lamp behind them3. Each person stared at their own reflected eyes for 10 minutes3.
The results were strong. Most of the people saw their own face deform3. 28% saw an unknown person3. 48% saw a fantastic or monstrous being3. Others saw an animal face, a parent’s face, or an old person3. Many said the new face seemed to have its own emotions and to look back at them.
One possible explanation combines two known effects. The first is Troxler fading. When you hold your gaze on one point, the parts of the image away from that point fade and lose detail1. In a dim mirror, your face is low contrast, so it fades fast. The second is pareidolia, the brain’s habit of finding faces in patchy or noisy input2. As parts of your face fade, the brain fills the gaps with a new face. The result is a stranger.
The effect goes away as soon as you move your eyes or turn up the light. By itself, it is not a sign of anything wrong.
How common it is
The 66% figure comes from a single study of 50 people run by Giovanni Caputo in 20103. The results rely on people describing what they saw in their own words, sorted into categories afterward. How much the numbers depend on the room’s dimness, the length of staring, or a person’s imagination has not been fully separated out. Treat the percentages as a first estimate, not a fixed rule.
Try it
Some people find this unsettling. Stop if you do not like it.
- Sit about 40 centimetres from a mirror in a dim room3. One small lamp behind you is enough. You should just be able to see your face.
- Stare at your own reflected eyes. Do not look away and do not blink more than you have to.
- Keep going for 5 to 10 minutes3.
- Watch your face fade, shift, and change. When it is enough, look away or turn on the light.
Is it a problem?
No. Healthy people see it too5. By itself, it is not a sign of a mental health problem. It stops the moment you look away or turn up the light. It is not the same as ongoing depersonalization, where a sense of unreality persists outside any deliberate staring. See a doctor if a feeling of your face or body being unreal continues once you stop the exercise and move around.
History and culture
Mirror-gazing in dim light appears in old folk traditions and in games such as “Bloody Mary”4. The same fading and filling-in probably explains many reports of faces appearing in dark mirrors.
Sources and further material
- doi.org Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion Perception 39(7): 1007-1008. The original study of 50 people.
- NCBI Visual perception and dissociation during Mirror Gazing Test in patients with anorexia nervosa: a preliminary study States that the mirror-gazing illusions occur in healthy people.
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Related oddities
Troxler effect
When you hold your gaze on one point, things in the edge of your vision fade out and disappear. The brain stops reporting anything that does not change.
Ganzfeld effect
Fill your whole field of view with a featureless colour and, after some minutes, your brain may start inventing shapes, lights, and scenes. Two halved ping-pong balls and a lamp are enough to do it at home.
Derealization and depersonalization
The world suddenly seems flat, distant, or like a film (derealization), or you feel like you are watching yourself from outside (depersonalization). Many people have a brief episode at some point, usually under stress.
Closed-eye hallucinations
Close your eyes and you do not see nothing. You see speckle, drifting colour, and, as you fall asleep, moving patterns and even scenes. Almost everyone sees the speckle, and many people see more. Almost nobody talks about them.
Jamais vu
A familiar word, face or place suddenly feels strange, as if you are meeting it for the first time. It is the opposite of déjà vu, and researchers think it is rarer. In lab studies, more than half of people felt a common word turn strange after copying it about 30 times.
Prosopagnosia
People with prosopagnosia, or face blindness, find it hard to recognise faces, even those of family and friends. Most have had it all their lives. It can also start after brain damage. Estimates run from about 1 in 100 people to about 1 in 40, depending on how it is tested.