Bizarre optical illusion makes it look like girl is stuck in concrete but there’s a simple explanation

Optical illusions are supposed to be fun but sometimes images that create a buzz on the internet can be alarming and even outright creepy. One such image was posted by a woman, showing her daughter sinking into the concrete floor, and left the internet in disbelief. The picture depicts a young girl playing outside in a pink outfit, which doesn't seem out of the ordinary at first. However, because of the angle and placement, it appears as though the girl is waist-deep in solid grey concrete. The image, which appears to defy reason and logic, immediately attracted the attention of social media users. Before going viral on X (previously Twitter), it was originally posted on Reddit.

The girl's mother captioned the photo, "My daughter, where's the rest of her?! Ohh, I see, do you?" Responding to this, Reddit user @Really-Riley, commented, "This is this single greatest confusing perspective I’ve seen so far. Even after the answer was given to me, my mind was scrambled. You literally have to create a line on the edge of the wall to differentiate from the footpath. Ok, I’m going to go into a recovery position now." Another person, @peepay, wrote, "I kept looking for like two minutes. Then I finally saw it. Now it looks so obvious I don't understand how I could not see it."

Reddit user @monkeynards joined in and said, "I almost wanted to call this out for Photoshop or something because I just COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT (had to go to comments). This is genuinely one of the best I’ve seen. Hats off to op." This was followed by @nixthelatter writing, "That took me wayyy too long to figure out! Was this planned or accidental? The little girl doesn't appear to be aware of the camera, so I get the impression it was coincidental. Very cool!"

The trick behind this confusing photo is that the girl is standing behind a wall that blends perfectly with the paving stones beneath her, creating the illusion.

Fred, the photographer's husband, revealed that his wife took the photograph outside of Portugal's Ourém Castle. She took the shot without much consideration and never looked at it again, missing the optical illusion that she had captured. Even Fred didn't notice a strange effect until one day when he was looking through old pictures. He revealed that the girl is their daughter, who has been taken aback by the sudden social media popularity. As reported by Newsweek, it's also worth noting that although Fred is an expert photographer, he has never taken a viral picture like this one before.

Most of the time people believe that seeing is believing, but this picture dispels that notion. It is possible that the perception of what one is looking at could be inaccurate. This is because the brain does more than simply process the visual information collected by the eyes and transferred to it. It actively interprets what people perceive. This suggests that sometimes the brain generates an image that isn't based on reality.