Optical Illusion: Only a genius can spot the fourth guy holding the bottle in this VIRAL picture

An interesting

optical illusion

has been doing the rounds on social media, making users wonder how it is possible. In the

viral image

, there are four bottles, seemingly clinking together at the center of the frame. However, it appears that only three hands are visible, which makes it seem like there’s a

visual disconnect

— three hands for four bottles. So, where is the fourth person?
At first blush, it is easy to get confused because a lot of people on social media are seeing exactly this: three hands holding up four whiskey bottles. But, as more responses started flooding in, one observant individual finally pointed out what our eyes and brains were missing.
This optical illusion here illustrates the presence of the fourth man with his hand moving into the scene from the left side edge of the photo. At first glance, this hand will go pretty unnoticed. However, closer observation brings notice to this part. A well-crafted outline of a person’s glove looks so flawless on top of a kilt by the middle fellow who is from Scotland that there emerges an optical illusion in the mind that thinks a kilt rather than a glove.

This optical illusion occurs because of how our brain processes visual information. Our brains are wired to recognize patterns quickly, a skill developed over millennia for survival. Back in the day, it was crucial to recognize threats fast, and our brains evolved to identify shapes, colours, and objects within milliseconds
In this case, though, our quick identification system lets us down. The color of the shirt camouflages the hand, and our brains mistake the glove outline as part of the kilt, and so are bewildered by a rather clever optical illusion. After being made aware of the trick, our brains soon get over the surprise, and we see the hand each time we view the picture.
Such is how optical illusions can expose the complexity of, and even sometimes flaws in, the perception of things. If the image gets transmitted to our brains in a different fashion than we think we’re seeing them, then, well, sometimes our mind plays tricks on us.