Myth of Mona Lisa’s magical gaze debunked
BIELEFELD, Germany: In science, the “Mona Lisa Effect” refers to the impression that the eyes of the person portrayed in an image seem to follow the viewer as they move in front of the picture.
Two researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology at Bielefeld University demonstrate that this effect does not occur with Leonardo da Vinci’s worldfamous painting “Mona Lisa” - debunking a scientific legend. The researchers are presenting the results of their study in the scientific journal i-Perception.
“People are very good at gauging whether or not they are being looked at by others. Perceptual psychology demonstrated this in the 1960s,” says Professor Dr Gernot Horstmann.
“People can feel like they’re being looked at from both photographs and paintings - if the person portrayed looks straight ahead out of the image, that is, at a gaze angle of 0 degrees,” explained Horstmann.
“With a slightly sideward glance, you may still feel as if you were being looked at. This was perceived as if the portrayed person were looking at your ear, and corresponds to about 5 degrees from a normal viewing distance. But as the angle increases, you would not have the impression of being looked at.”
“Curiously enough, we don’t have to stand right in front of the image in order to have the impression of being looked at - even if the person portrayed in the image looks straight ahead,” says Dr Sebastian Loth. “This impression emerges if we stand to the left or right and at different distances from the image. The robust sensation of ‘being looked at’ is precisely the Mona Lisa effect.”
Horstmann and Loth had 24 study participants look at the Mona Lisa on a computer screen and assess the direction of her gaze.
The result: “The participants in our study had the impression that Mona Lisa’s gaze was aimed to their right-hand side. More specifically, the gaze angle was 15.4 degrees on average,” says Gernot Horstmann. “Thus, it is clear that the term “Mona Lisa Effect” is nothing but a misnomer. It illustrates the strong desire to be looked at and to be someone else’s centre of attention - to be relevant to someone, even if you don’t know the person at all.” — Newswise