Fat Tuesday: Illusory Portion Control
By Stephen L. Macknik
This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Ed. note: this post appeared previously at Sleights of Mind.
Think that your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Well, actually, yes... they are.
The Portion Size Illusion is a new variant of an old classic illusion called the Ebbinghaus illusion, in which a circle surrounded by smaller circles looks bigger than the same circle surrounded by bigger circles. It shows that, to your visual system, everything is relative.
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Http://www.moillusions.com/2012/09/the-portion-size-optical-illusion.html
In the new foodie-friendly recipe, your brain is fricasseed, and your mind is served up on a platter, when the same serving of food appears in different sizes by virtue of the relative size of the plate. Use this illusion at home to make yourself feel like you’re eating like a pig, when in reality you’re just using a smaller bucket.
-- Stephen Macknik
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