If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you’ve probably seen this optical illusion knocking about.
Basically, for most people, it will look as though the image is moving, even though the illustration is actually perfectly still. Spooky.
But according to tweets (and one now-deleted Tumblr post), it’s not just any old illusion. The posts claim the speed at which the image moves shows you how stressed you……….
тАЬThis still image was created by Yamamoto, a Japanese neurology professor, and he told the instructions below,тАЭ the original post reads. тАЬIf itтАЩs not moving, or just moving a little, you are healthy and have slept well. If itтАЩs moving slowly, you are a bit stressed or tired. If itтАЩs moving continuously, you are over-stressed and might have mental problems.тАЭ
But here’s the thing: that’s all fake. The image was really created by Yurii Perepadia, a 50-year-old designer from Oleksandriya in Ukraine. He drew it in 2016 and it took him about two hours to complete. And most importantly, he says the image has nothing to do with how stressed you’re feeling.
“I first saw this fake post on Facebook and then they began to appear everywhere,” Yurii tells BBC Three.
“It annoyed me. After all, it was copyright infringement. So I wrote letters demanding the removal of the posts.”
But despite Yurii trying his best to get the posts taken down, people on Twitter continued to share the illusion…