from Hacker News

Can you see circles or rectangles? Does the answer depend on where you grew up?

by etiam on 7/5/25, 11:09 PM with 4 comments

  • by fracus on 7/6/25, 12:22 AM

    They discuss people from the educated, democratized world see rectangles while a group from Namibia see circles because, they hypothesize, their world isn't highly "carpenterized" with right angles and straight lines. So could this not be simply because they don't know what a rectangle is, and so categorize these close loops as circles? I don't understand the acceptance it is an optical illusion.

  • by robocat on 7/6/25, 3:55 AM

    If you don't see the circles, this shows what to look for:

    https://i0.wp.com/mentalbomb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/...

  • by chrsw on 7/6/25, 4:28 AM

    At first I saw rectangles then I searched for the circles and found them. Now I'm having a hard time going back to seeing rectangles.

  • by _wire_ on 7/6/25, 2:50 AM

      ________
 /        \
 |        |
 \________/
    Do you see the above as a circle or a rectangle?