Bezold Effect in Online Optical Illusion

Psychological Articles Explaining Online Optical Illusions

By Boomeryearbook.com

The Bezold Effect is one of the classical optical illusions which has become the basis of many online optical illusions. Wilhelm von Bezold, a German professor of meteorology, discovered this effect in the nineteenth century. According to this effect, the perception of color brightness changes with respect to adjacent colors. You can find this effect in many online optical illusions that trick observers into believing that a color in the illusion changes.

According to the Bezold Effect, lighter colors look darker and dimmer when placed in adjacent to lighter colors and they look brighter when placed adjacent to darker colors. On the other hand, darker colors become sharper and lighter when placed in adjacent to lighter colors and vice versa. Creators of online optical illusions use this phenomenon to create many great optical illusionary effects.

Bright Color Against Bright and Dull Backgrounds

Figure 1 is a demonstration of one of the online optical illusions based on this effect.

Figure 1

In this online optical illusion, the red strips with the black background looks brighter than the red strips with the white background. Look again at the red strip at the border between the white and the black background. You will notice that the red strips are actually of same brightness! The trick in this online optical illusion lies in the Bezold Effect due to the differences in background.

There is a wide range of online optical illusions that are based on this effect.

Figure 2 shows another online optical illusion that applies the Bezold Effect.

Dull Color against Bright and Dull Backgrounds

Figure 2

In this online optical illusion, the gray line looks dimmer against the dull green background, whereas it looks brighter against the bright purple background. This is because both the green and the gray colors in this online optical illusion are dull colors. On the other hand, the dull gray line becomes brighter due to the bright purple background.

Both the above online optical illusions work on the principle of Bezold Effect, as this amazing effect has enabled the creation of many fascinating online optical illusions presented in previous Boomer Yearbook articles.

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