A passenger saw an "alien" sitting next to him on a plane and exclaimed: What the hell is this?

The story begins on an ordinary flight. A passenger took a photo and found a strange "passenger" in the picture: wearing a black hoodie, with strangely large eyes, as if "spying" on the photographer.

Image source: twitter

People who first saw the photo exclaimed: "Is this an alien?" Some even joked: "What the hell is this? I was so scared that I almost landed the plane myself."

This "strange alien" was described by some netizens as the alien hiding under the blanket in the movie "ET".

It does look a bit like Image source: ET

Some people also recalled the 2023 video in which a popular internet celebrity passenger broke down and screamed “this person is not real” on a plane, saying that perhaps the person in the photo was the “unreal passenger” she was describing.

Image source: Internet

However, the mystery was soon solved by careful netizens. The so-called "alien" was not a visitor from outer space, but an ordinary passenger who wore his hoodie inside out. His face was covered by the hoodie, and he wore headphones on his ears, the shape of which just formed a "giant eye". This optical illusion made the whole photo look quite weird.

Image source: twitter

One person commented: "That's just a person wearing a hoodie backwards, the so-called 'big eyes' are just headphones." Another person added: "It's a visual trick, it really looks like the eyes are glaring at you, but it's just the side face and headphones."

This optical illusion belongs to a typical psychological phenomenon called "Pareidolia" , which means that the human brain tends to find familiar patterns, especially faces, in random objects or scenes.

The human visual system evolved to be particularly sensitive to recognizing faces because facial information is extremely important for survival and social interaction. This tendency makes us automatically look for facial features, such as eyes, noses, and mouths, even in blurry or incomplete shapes.

Image source: owlcation

When seeing something unclear or unknown, the brain automatically fills in the information to form an understandable image. In this photo, the shape of the black hat resembles the outline of the head, and the shadow and reflection of the seat form the position of the "eye", which makes people think of an "alien".

It is easy to tell from the grain of the wood that it is an "alien" Source: reddit

As a pop culture symbol, aliens have been deeply rooted in many people's minds. When the environment provides clues that partially match the image of "alien", such as the "dark face outline" and "bright eyes" in this picture, the brain will immediately associate it.

There seems to be an "alien" outside the window. Source: reddit

In addition, the lighting on an airplane is usually weak and the angles in the photos are not clear. This ambiguity increases our guesswork in the image and makes it easier for people to see "images" that do not actually exist.

Dr Colin Palmer, from the School of Psychology at the University of South Wales, has also found that our brains react emotionally to false faces we find in inanimate objects. That is, we not only recognise that there is a face, but we analyse who it looks like and what emotions it conveys to us - is it crying, angry? Or looking at you with contempt, etc.

Mom! They are staring at me! ! | Image source: Internet

This emotional response to fake faces affects every aspect of our lives. For example, in 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported that sales of “cuter” cars, such as the Beetle, were declining. Related research has found that consumers tend to prefer cars that look “fierce,” and designers decided to use this finding to their advantage.

For example, the Dodge Charger has thin, slanted headlights that make it look threatening. "Headlights look like eye contact," said Ralph Gilles, a designer at Chrysler. "If a car has a really mean face and a threatening look, it can make oncoming drivers anxious or more aggressive."

Which car expression do you prefer? | Imgur

So why did such a reaction mechanism that is almost a brain bug remain in the long history of human evolution?

In fact, in ancient times, being able to quickly and accurately detect faces could help human ancestors detect predators and threats in a very short time and escape in time, ultimately surviving. Today, a large number of face recognition is also very important to us. You need to recognize who the other person is, whether they are family, friends or enemies, and what their intentions and emotions are.

Therefore, sometimes the brain overreacts and often mistakes objects around us for human faces, which is a small bug and is not worth mentioning!

Planning and production

Source｜Bring Science Home (id: steamforkids)

Editor: Wang Mengru

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin