A viral image of Adele has captivated social media users, leaving them bewildered by a psychological phenomenon called the ‘Thatcher Effect.’ This effect, named after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was first introduced in 1980 by University of York psychology professor Peter Thompson. It involves an optical illusion where our brains struggle to detect local changes in facial features when the face is upside down, even though the changes are immediately noticeable when the image is upright.
The Adele image went viral because, while her face was upside down, it took users a while to notice something was amiss. The illusion occurs because, although her eyes and mouth were flipped upside down, they appeared normal at first glance. It wasn’t until the image was flipped right side up that the error became obvious: her facial features were inverted.
Clinical psychologist Dr. Julie Smith, based in London, had previously shared a similar mind-bending video on TikTok. In the video, she showed a series of celebrity photos altered to exhibit the Thatcher Effect, including famous figures like Barack Obama and Kanye West. She asked viewers to look at the photos and notice any strange occurrences. Despite the photos being upside down, people’s brains still recognized the faces, and it wasn’t until flipping the images back to their correct orientation that the distortions became evident.
The Thatcher Effect highlights a cognitive flaw in the way our brains process faces. When a face is turned upside down, localized changes in facial features—such as flipping the eyes or mouth—are hard for the brain to detect. But when the face is upright, these changes are glaringly obvious. This phenomenon occurs because our brains are specifically tuned to process upright faces. When viewing faces in their normal orientation, our brains focus on the configuration of facial features (like the position of the eyes relative to the mouth) to identify individuals. The illusion suggests that we rely more on these configurations than on individual facial features alone, making the inversion of those features difficult to detect in an upside-down image.
Originally, it was believed that the Thatcher Effect was unique to Margaret Thatcher’s image. However, further research has shown that the effect can be demonstrated with many other faces, as evidenced by the viral Adele image and others shared by Dr. Smith. In these altered photos, the eyes and mouth of the faces were inverted, but it took viewers a moment to notice the oddities when the images were upside down. Once the images were flipped, the bizarre alterations became clear.
The Thatcher Effect remains a fascinating example of how the brain processes faces and demonstrates how our perception can be tricked by simple visual manipulations. Dr. Smith’s viral TikTok video, which amassed millions of views, sparked widespread curiosity and engagement, with viewers marvelling at the illusion’s ability to deceive the mind.
