Everything About ___
Live briefing

Everything about Thatcher effect

Optical illusion

The Thatcher effect, or Thatcher illusion, is a phenomenon in which changes to facial features are difficult to detect when a face is upside-down, even though the same changes are obvious in an upright face. It is named after the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, on whose photograph the effect was first demonstrated. The effect was originally created in 1980 by Peter Thompson, professor of psychology at the University of York. Wikipedia →

đź§­ Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: Thatcher effectA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: The role of perceptual processing in the oddball effect revealed by the Thatcher illusionInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Back to the LakeThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Thatcher Effect in Monkeys Demonstrates Conservation of Face Perception across PrimatesCited 45 times
  5. Go sideways: Face inversion effectA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: Face superiority effectA closely related topic

đź“– Definitions

No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Overview
  2. Further investigations

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

đź”— Related topics