Do you see an old lady or a young woman?

The podcast with Michael Shermer discusses some of the unique and peculiar modern phenomenons; as a scientist he shares with us the different reasons such as cognitive bias and pattern seeking we as human beings use to explain some of “these weird things”. I thought that the different “scientific” rationale for the Nun Bun and other images was very interesting. I’m not sure if all of what Michael Shermer referred to is valid but I do believe that he provided some logical and agreeable explanations. Although I have not heard most of the example Michael Shermer used in the podcast, I have heard and seen some similar unusual things.

For example, as Michael Shermer mentioned, when you squint your eyes, the image goes from “fine to coarse grain” and generally this action followed by the comment “oh yeah…I can what you are talking about” or some variation of the phrase. Also people do try to find patterns and similarities among different thing. As human beings I think that cognitive bias is present because of our desires to relate with others and I believe that people believe what they want to believe, and people see what they want to see, and often I believe what people want to believe to see is influenced by others. For example, I believe it was 4 or more years ago in my hometown, San Antonio, TX where there was great excitement about the image of the Virgin Mary on a…tortilla. You see when you cook a tortilla brown cooked spots appear, and apparently at a local taco restaurant, one of the cooks noticed the image of the Virgin Mary in one of the cooked tortillas. This was a great interest story for the local news channels; I not only saw the news report on this but I also remember talking about it with friends and teachers. Now I’m not sure if the public would have been concern for the tortilla if the cook didn’t identify what he thought he saw. Likewise, I remember there was a similar phenomenon with the statue of a crying Virgin Mary. Supposedly, this was a standalone statue of the Virgin Mary and she would cry blood or red tears. I remember hearing this from a local news story as well.

I think it all goes along with what the public and human beings do with the unknown, people shape their opinions and what they want to see through their own beliefs and experiences from their lives. For instance, when I heard about the Virgin Mary on the tortilla and the crying Virgin Mary, I remember discussing that these items were fakes and scams for publicity with my dad; and also growing up as a Christian has taught me the importance of not idolizing items such as the tortilla or statues. Therefore, through my experiences I have very different opinions and ideas about these “weird things”. Similarly, as we shape what we want to believe and see with our own ideas, we also have the tendency to adjust our visions and beliefs by what others tell us. For example, in the optical illusion or brain teaser of the picture with the old woman or young lady, often people see one or the other very clearly but cannot see the other image without someone else pointing it out. I think this is a very clear example of what Michael Shermer was talking about with cognitive bias and people seeing and believing what they want to.