Scientists working at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm have shown its possible to fool people into thiking they're a Barbie-doll or a 4-metre-tall giant.
“Both illusions were cool, but if I have to choose which one I preferred, I would have to say the Barbie,” Björn van der Hoort, neurologist at Karolinska Institutet, told The Local.
In the experiment, 198 people were shown images of a doll – a Barbie-sized one and a giant one – having their legs stroked. At the same time the subject’s legs were stroked – causing the illusion that what they saw was what they felt.
After that the subjects were asked to estimates the size of differently sized blocks and then walk over these with their eyes shut.
The result showed that for the subjects touched as a Barbie-doll, the blocks were estimated as very large.
Where the 4–metre doll had been used the blocks were perceived as tiny. The distances between the blocks were over- and under-estimated in a similar manner.
The experiment indicates that how we perceive size and distance is universal and almost all test subjects had the same experience.
“It is a really strong illusion, even when you know that you are being fooled you still believe it," said van der Hoort.
http://www.thelocal.se/34028/20110527/
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