Optical Illusion Thatcherism

The following extract has been taken from BBC Bang

Most people can still recognise a face that’s been rotated upside-down, and they still do even when altered in rather major ways. In particular, a distortion known as ‘Thatcherization’ often goes unnoticed – that’s where just the eyes and the mouth are changed to be the right way up.

If the entire face is then rotated into the normal position, you’re in for a shock as the face suddenly looks grotesque. Try rotating the line-up of suspects below – I’m particularly happy with how awful my own Thatcherized face suddenly becomes!

With photo manipulation programs, you can easily do the same to your own digital photos, but I’ve found some faces and expressions aren’t so good.

Below are the other presenters, along with a face that definitely doesn’t Thatcherize well. I suspect this is because the smile takes up a good portion of the lower part of the face, approaching the edges of her cheeks.

This problem (if having a great smile is a problem!) also seems to affect Liz’s picture, but to a lesser extent.

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