Category Archives: Perception and Reality

Grassy area with a castle perched on a large ceramic urn

The Visual Illusions that Reveal How Our Minds Work

Disney is known for creating magical effects on-screen, but did you know they also use tricks and deception in their theme parks, too? This article discusses a few of the ways Disney–and other theme parks and entertainment venues–use optical illusions to create magical effects in real life.

Very tiny neurons.

Scientists have solved a classic optical illusion–and the answer’s in your neurons

There is a famous optical illusion with two gray lines inside a number of black and white bars. The gray bars are the same color, but they appear lighter or darker depending on which bars are around them. Science was never sure why, but it seems the answer lies in you brain’s neurons and how fast they can fire.

Man Getting Shocked While Repairing Lamp

The Dunning-Kruger Effect, or ‘why incompetent people think they’re amazing’

How good are you at basketball? What about playing an instrument? Psychological research suggests we’re not actually very good at evaluating our own abilities accurately. In fact, we frequently overestimate our own abilities thanks to something known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect.