Internet Can’t Decide Where This Cat Is Going

A picture of a cat recently posted by one of the users of 9gag started a discussion similar to the infamous case with the black/gold dress. The photo of the cat is an optical illusion. Some people see the cat going upstairs while others are sure it’s on the way down.

According to the results of online voting on The Telegraph, Mirror and Today.com, the version of the cat doing downstairs is leading the votes. However the difference between versions (57% vs 43%, 62% vs 38%, 58% vs 42% respectively) is so insignificant that it’s difficult to decide what is true.

Resource Cnet asked Behavioral Science professor Nick Chater from the Warwick Business School (UK) to explain which direction the cat is moving, but he wasn’t able to give a clear answer, “When we see the cat coming downstairs, the gray square is interpreted as ceiling — and this makes an acute, roughly 45 degree angle with the staircase. But when we see the cat as going upstairs, the gray square is now interpreted as floor — and this makes an obtuse, roughly 135 degree angle with the staircase. If we could only tell the “slant” of the mysterious square patch in relation to the staircase, we would know if it was floor or ceiling, and so there would be no ambiguity. But the image cleverly leaves the gray square bereft of any clues. So we flip from one interpretation to the other,” he said.

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