That image is playing tricks on you. It’s a classic optical illusion — and scientists finally understand what’s happening.
Above, you can see two gray bars between the black lines. They sure look different. But nope, they’re the exact same shade. So, why does the gray bar surrounded by black look darker than the gray bar with white on each side?
It’s a phenomenon called “‘simultaneous contrast”
A new study explains that this kind of optical illusion fools us due to the limitations of our eyes. It’s not your brain failing to grasp anything but rather the actual hardware of your eyeballs.