now you see me Do these dual images say anything about your personality? Personality quizzes based on ambiguous images are bunk, but we can still learn from such psychological myths. Jennifer Ouellette Mar 4, 2025 4:19 pm | 20 "Rabbit and Duck," the earliest known version of the duckrabbit illusion (1892) Credit: Public domain "Rabbit and Duck," the earliest known version of the duckrabbit illusion (1892) Credit: Public domain Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThere's little that Internet denizens love more than a snazzy personality testcat videos, maybe, or perpetual outrage. One trend that has gained popularity over the last several years is personality quizzes based on so-called ambiguous imagesin which one sees either a young girl or an old man, for instance, or a skull or a little girl. It's possible to perceive both images by shifting one's perspective, but it's the image one sees first that is said to indicate specific personality traits. According to one such quiz, seeing the young girl first means you are optimistic and a bit impulsive, while seeing the old man first would mean one is honest, faithful, and goal-oriented.But is there any actual science to back up the current fad? There is not, according to a paper published in the journal PeerJ, whose authors declare these kinds of personality quizzes to be a new kind of psychological myth. That said, they did find a couple of intriguing, statistically significant correlations they believe warrant further research.In 1892, a German humor magazine published the earliest known version of the "rabbit-duck illusion," in which one can see either a rabbit or a duck, depending on one's perspectivei.e., multistable perception. There have been many more such images produced since then, all of which create ambiguity by exploiting certain peculiarities of the human visual system, such as playing with illusory contours and how we perceive edges.Such images have long fascinated scientists and philosophers because they seem to represent different ways of seeing. So naturally there is a substantial body of research drawing parallels between such images and various sociological, biological, or psychological characteristics.For instance, a 2010 study examined BBC archival data on the duck-rabbit illusion from the 1950s and found that men see the duck more often than women, while older people were more likely to see the rabbit. A 2018 study of the "younger-older woman" ambiguous image asked participants to estimate the age of the woman they saw in the image. Older participants over 30 gave higher estimates than younger ones. This was confirmed by a 2021 study, although that study also found no correlation between participants' age and whether they were more likely to see the older or younger woman in the image.A new psychological mythThis latest paper evaluates the veracity of claimed links between ambiguous images and personality traits. "I have always had a love of optical illusions because they are a vivid demonstration of how our perceptions can be led astray," co-author Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire told Ars. "The duck/rabbit is great because it is so simple, yet theres lots going on. When we look at it, our minds are constantly flipping between the two interpretations."Wiseman co-authored a 2011 study and a 2012 study, both examining a possible link between one's level of creativity and whether one sees a rabbit or duck in the duck-rabbit illusion. "We originally showed that there is a correlation between the degree of flipping and scores on creativity tests," he said. But both studies found no significant relationships between which animal subjects saw first and their level of creativity. So he was naturally skeptical of claims circulating about a correlation between one's preferences in ambiguous images and personality traits. Do you see a young woman facing away first, or an old woman with a hooked nose in profile? Public domain Do you see a young woman facing away first, or an old woman with a hooked nose in profile? Public domain The Rubin's Vase illusion. Do you see faces first, or a vase? Public domain The Rubin's Vase illusion. Do you see faces first, or a vase? Public domain Do you see a young woman facing away first, or an old woman with a hooked nose in profile? Public domain The Rubin's Vase illusion. Do you see faces first, or a vase? Public domain For this latest study, Wiseman partnered with Caroline Watt of the University of Edinburgh (who also co-authored the 2011/2012 papers) to put four specific claims to the test. For instance, if one sees the duck first in the duck-rabbit illusion, one is less emotionally stable and optimistic, whereas if one sees the rabbit first, one is inclined toward procrastination. Seeing the older woman first in the younger-older-woman image means one is more agreeable and uses logic to make decisions, whereas seeing the younger woman means one is a more independent decision-maker.Another claimed link is tied to the Rubin's Vase illusion. If one sees faces first, one is more detail-oriented, while if one sees the vase first, one is less detail-oriented and more spontaneous when making decisions. Finally, there is the Horse-Seal (or Donkey-Seal) image, specifically created in 1968 for research on ambiguous images. If one sees the seal first, one has higher detail-oriented holistic thinking and is more analytical when making decisions.The 300 study participants were recruited from a crowdsourcing platform and were shown the four ambiguous images and asked to identify which image they saw first. They then completed five psychological instruments: the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, the Holistic Cognition Scale, the Optimism-Pessimism Short Scale, the General Procrastination Scale, and the General Decision-Making Styles Scale. "We used scales that related to claims that were out there, and this included the big five personality traits, holistic vs atomistic thinking, optimism, decision-making, and procrastination," said Wiseman. "So I looked at what claims were being made and chose scales accordingly."The results disproved many of the claims. For instance, people who saw the rabbit first weren't more prone to procrastination than those who saw the duck first; those who saw the older woman first weren't more agreeable than those who saw the young woman first; those who saw the young woman first weren't more independent than those who saw the older woman first; those who saw the faces first weren't more detail-oriented than those who saw the vase first; and those who saw the seal first were not more detail-oriented and analytical in making decisions.But there were also some intriguing findings, although the effect sizes were quite small. There was a slight association between how participants perceived the duck versus rabbit and optimism and emotional stability, for example. Whether a participant first saw the older or the younger woman did seem to correlate with age. And subjects who saw the seal first scored higher on intuition and spontaneity measures.In short, "We didn't find very much support for the claims, but there were some correlations in our data," said Wiseman. "The values were small and could be spurious, but well worth following up. I find it plausible that these figures may be related to certain thinking styles, and it would be great to identify them using empirical approaches rather than just guessing."PeerJ, 2025. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.19022 (About DOIs).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 20 Comments