Optical Illusion: Black or White? The Mystery Behind Two Sets of Chess Pieces

Optical Illusion: This mind-boggling optical illusion image has internet users perplexed as to how the two sets of chess pieces can be the same. 

the top and bottom chess sets are the same colour pic.twitter.com/U38Rlo5W3v

— Tom Chivers (@TomChivers) May 13, 2022

Yes, we are speaking about the optical illusion image shared by Tom Chivers on Twitter with the caption “the top and bottom chess sets are the same colour.” 

The image below shows two sets of chess pieces that are different from each other in their appearance.

What if we told you that these two sets are identical?

Would you agree?

You won’t.

Well, we will be explaining to you the mystery behind the statement that the two sets of chess pieces are the same.

Keep reading.

Optical Illusion: Mystery behind Two Sets of Chess Pieces Explained

This optical illusion image was created by researchers Barton Anderson, from the University of Sydney, Australia, and Jonathan Winawer, of New York University and was published in the science journal Nature.

Have a look at the image again.

You can see that there are two sets of chess pieces against a smoky background. Interestingly, this image's upper set of chess pieces is against a dark smoky background, while the lower set is against a lighter background.

This illusion is created by the smoky background and is responsible for altering our perception.

This is possible due to the phenomenon of assimilation, which tricks our brain into thinking that these are different colours although they are the same.

In this phenomenon, when an object is placed in a darker background, it appears light, while the same object appears dark when placed in a lighter environment.

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