Maybe we watched too many horror movies as kids, or maybe it's just an evolutionary advantage to be wary of danger when it isn't necessarily there, but we can all remember that sudden feeling of terror when the shadow of a tree flashes across a window.
"Who's there!" Is our first reaction. Because we are programmed to see faces and other human features quickly, that innocent branch swaying in the wind can quickly become the sinister hand of an ax murderer. It works for other threats too. Are you afraid of spiders? Then perhaps you might begin to 'see' them everywhere until you get a closer look and realize that it's just a hairclip. Better to be safe than sorry though, am I right?
We here at Bored Panda have compiled a list of times when people got freaked out by everyday things and while some of them are understandably scary, others are just plain hilarious. Scroll down below to check these creepy photos of optical illusions out for yourself, and share your own stories in the comments!
This post may include affiliate links.
That Paralyzing Moment When You Forget To Breathe Because You're So Darn Scared... I Forgot I Put My Hair Clip There
Optical illusions challenge our sense of reality; they make us realize that what we see is simply our brains' best interpretation of the visual cues our eyes provide. Our brains have adapted not to see what is actually there, but what we deem as useful to see.
These eye tricks occur when a visual scene unfolds that is different from what our brain has decided is the norm, and it will respond in odd and often confusing ways until finally arriving at a conclusion.
I Thought I Saw A Woman Dressed As A Handmaid About To Jump From A Building. I Called 911
I Left My Boots At The Back Door. When I Was Walking Back Outside I Nearly Had A Heart Attack
According to Exploring optical illusions, there are 3 main types of optical illusion:
Literal illusions create images that are different from the objects that make them, like most of the entries on this list. For example, if 3 birds are flying, 2 above one, it can form the illusion of a smiling face.
Physiological illusions, such as afterimages following bright lights or adapting stimuli of excessively longer alternating patterns (contingent perceptual aftereffect), are presumed to be the effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type - brightness, tilt, color, movement, etc. The theory is that stimuli have individual dedicated neural paths in the early stages of visual processing, and that repetitive stimulation of only one or a few channels causes a physiological imbalance that alters perception.
I Need To Find The Lady Who Hanged This Freak. Gave Me A Heart Attack...
Slept Over My Moms House Last Night And This Scared Me More Then I Would Like To Admit
Cognitive illusions are assumed to arise by interaction with assumptions about the world, leading to "unconscious inferences", an idea first suggested in the 19th century by Hermann Helmholtz. Cognitive illusions are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.
1. Ambiguous illusions are pictures or objects that elicit a perceptual 'switch' between the alternative interpretations. The Necker cube is a well known example; another instance is the Rubin vase.
2. Distorting illusions are characterized by distortions of size, length, or curvature. A striking example is the Café wall illusion. Another example is the famous Müller-Lyer illusion.
3. Paradox illusions are generated by objects that are paradoxical or impossible, such as the Penrose triangle or impossible staircases seen, for example, in M. C. Escher's Ascending and Descending and Waterfall. The triangle is an illusion dependent on a cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join.
4. Fictional illusions are defined as the perception of objects that are genuinely not there to all but a single observer, such as those induced by schizophrenia or a hallucinogen. These are more properly called hallucinations.
Walked Into My Room And Saw That My Pillows And Blanket Had Tangled Up Like This. I Almost Had A Heart Attack
My Wife Tossed A Comforter On A Chair To Dry, I Nearly Had A Heart Attack
Had A Mini Heart Attack When I Looked Up And Saw This. Trampoline Developed A Hole. She Thought It Was Hilarious
My Friend's Way Of Drying Shoes Scared Me A Bit. I Thought She Was Hanging Out Her 11th Floor Window
This Was On The Side Of My Friends House, Scared The Crap Out Of Me
"Head" On Beach After Sandy
Saw This After My SO Gasped. Scared The Hell Out Of Us. This Is Mannequin
When Your Lamp Gives You A Heart Attack
Early When I Arrived Home, I Saw A Strange Figure Standing In My Window. Terrified, I Called The Police And They Did A Search Of My House. The Culprit? My Hanging Laundry
Every Time I Come Home Late My Neighbor's Burglar-Proofing Cardboard Cutout Gives Me A Minor Heart Attack
Hung My Hip Waders Up In The Basement. Scared The S**t Out Of My Wife When She Went To Go Down There
Came Home Late And Found This Sitting On The Edge Of My Bed. I Now Know What It's Like To Be Too Scared To Move
Was Eating A Packet Of Walnuts When I Happened To Notice This... Almost Had A Heart Attack
My Mom Washed My Snuggie And Hung It Up In My Room, Almost Had A Heart Attack
The Shadow From This Tree Scared Me
I think everyone has had this moment. This post made me belly laugh.
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I needed this today.
SAme, and the witty comments add to the hilarity!! Bored Panderers are the best. I LOVE this <3
also my english has totally gone out the window. Need to calm down XD
I found it amusing a lot of people has a fear of finding spiders everywhere. are they usually the dangerous ones? the types that usually found where I'm from are mostly harmless so I don't think spiders are a common phobia.
I don't think people are scared of spiders because they're dangerous, but because there's something about them that repulses the human psyche and causes a fear reaction. I'm scared of all kinds of spiders, including the tiny ones that won't harm me in any way
Usually to me, I'm surprised by them which in turn freaks me out and engages a fight or flight response (I choose flight lol). Once I took out a tissue to blow my nose and a freakin wolf spider jumped out of it ONTO MY FACE. Scary af
I sometimes jump a little when I see a spider. They do look a little creepy. But they're cool and helpful creatures, so I just keep on walkin.....
I always loved spiders and carried them out of kindergarten, home, school etc. (We don't have dangerous spiders here!) So my daughter was raised to view them as a great benefit to have in a room, too (they eat stingy insects, eat silverfish etc). She never was scared. We only put them outdoors if here are too many to live properly (don't want them to starve) and sometimes we have to destroy the webs. But one spider in every room and one outdoors in front of every window is great through spring - autumn. ;-)
I just saw a photo posted this weekend of a huntsman spider eating a pygmy possum (who are too darned cute). In Australia (obviously).
It's the element of surprise- they move quickly and you have no idea which way they will go.
Spiders are a common phobia. People are not scared of them Because they're dangerous, it's an irrational fear cause they're straight up creepy as f!!!!
What Kaisu said. Also, we actually do have black widows in the wild in Croatia. Anyway, from what I know, you can tell dangerous spiders apart by how colourful they are or the markings they have.
Look up Brown Recluse spiders and tell me again how dangerous spiders are colorful.
I found an interesting article about this topic: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/44425/20150406/researchers-uncover-genetic-roots-of-fear-of-spiders.htm
We have two friends who are both petrified of spiders. We're waiting to see if their kids will develop the same phobia or will they be able to override their parents' conditioning.
actually arachnaphobia is a very common phobia.
spiders and butterflies are strange-looking insects. I can survive ants, but spiders, butterflies, moths are so creepy!!
Live in Australia and we have some of the deadliest spiders in the world and we live with them
I'm fine with spiders, as long as we don't occupy the same space at the same time. Yet when my wife and daughter see a spider, dad is the one to get rid of it. I wouldn't kill it, because it has a right to live like any other being, so I tend to relocate it..............carefully.
I think everyone has had this moment. This post made me belly laugh.
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. I needed this today.
SAme, and the witty comments add to the hilarity!! Bored Panderers are the best. I LOVE this <3
also my english has totally gone out the window. Need to calm down XD
I found it amusing a lot of people has a fear of finding spiders everywhere. are they usually the dangerous ones? the types that usually found where I'm from are mostly harmless so I don't think spiders are a common phobia.
I don't think people are scared of spiders because they're dangerous, but because there's something about them that repulses the human psyche and causes a fear reaction. I'm scared of all kinds of spiders, including the tiny ones that won't harm me in any way
Usually to me, I'm surprised by them which in turn freaks me out and engages a fight or flight response (I choose flight lol). Once I took out a tissue to blow my nose and a freakin wolf spider jumped out of it ONTO MY FACE. Scary af
I sometimes jump a little when I see a spider. They do look a little creepy. But they're cool and helpful creatures, so I just keep on walkin.....
I always loved spiders and carried them out of kindergarten, home, school etc. (We don't have dangerous spiders here!) So my daughter was raised to view them as a great benefit to have in a room, too (they eat stingy insects, eat silverfish etc). She never was scared. We only put them outdoors if here are too many to live properly (don't want them to starve) and sometimes we have to destroy the webs. But one spider in every room and one outdoors in front of every window is great through spring - autumn. ;-)
I just saw a photo posted this weekend of a huntsman spider eating a pygmy possum (who are too darned cute). In Australia (obviously).
It's the element of surprise- they move quickly and you have no idea which way they will go.
Spiders are a common phobia. People are not scared of them Because they're dangerous, it's an irrational fear cause they're straight up creepy as f!!!!
What Kaisu said. Also, we actually do have black widows in the wild in Croatia. Anyway, from what I know, you can tell dangerous spiders apart by how colourful they are or the markings they have.
Look up Brown Recluse spiders and tell me again how dangerous spiders are colorful.
I found an interesting article about this topic: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/44425/20150406/researchers-uncover-genetic-roots-of-fear-of-spiders.htm
We have two friends who are both petrified of spiders. We're waiting to see if their kids will develop the same phobia or will they be able to override their parents' conditioning.
actually arachnaphobia is a very common phobia.
spiders and butterflies are strange-looking insects. I can survive ants, but spiders, butterflies, moths are so creepy!!
Live in Australia and we have some of the deadliest spiders in the world and we live with them
I'm fine with spiders, as long as we don't occupy the same space at the same time. Yet when my wife and daughter see a spider, dad is the one to get rid of it. I wouldn't kill it, because it has a right to live like any other being, so I tend to relocate it..............carefully.