Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Denver news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Des Moines news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Minneapolis-St. Paul news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Tampa Bay news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Charlotte news in your inbox
Catch up on the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
A large toothbrush is sometimes harder to recognize than a small one.Credit: Eckstein et al, Figure 1
If an object isn't to scale with its surroundings, it's easier to overlook, according to a study published last week in the journal Current Biology. Participants were asked to search an image for a particular object. Sometimes the object was missing, sometimes it was normal-sized, and sometimes it was four times larger than normal. Participants were 13% more likely to miss the object when it was larger than expected.
Why it matters: It's part of a larger body of work showing expectations can influence how we perceive the world around us. Similar phenomena explain why sometimes objects we were looking for were in front of us the whole time, just out-of-context.
Go Deeper: The New York Times features examples of this illusion, and others, at work.