Background

This heavily-syndicated and duplicated optical illusion has existed for an age. Created by a user called 'Furista' at Worth1000.com, and whilst the image has since been removed; the illusion itself has continued for years.

What am I looking for?

You are looking for a face in the coffee beans. If you are struggling, make sure you are actually looking for a face IN the beans and not made by them.

Still stuck?

This illusion takes advantage of many of the small cues that our brain naturally ignores, so do not be disheartened. Try concentrating on the bottom-half of the photo.

Why is the face so difficult to find?

The face is so hard to find in the coffee beans because of several factors. Your brain will attempt to fill in much of the image almost as soon as you set eyes on it. At a mere glance, finding the face is very unlikely so your brain assumes it doesn't exist and overwrites the information with more bean-like-shapes. This is how other illusions such as object blindness are produced. At another level, the face is placed at a slightly strange offset admist the coffee, which does not ly in any of the 'Magic 9-Grid' zones (if an object resides along this grid, your brain naturally gives the object more importance), making it a less prominent part of the image in general. However, the key element of this deception is simple; boredom. Let's face it: staring at a load of beans is really not very interesting. After a good few seconds, you mentally give up and your brain will no longer give any processing power to finding the face; you will end up staring blankly at the image and not actually looking for the face. I mean who want's to stare at coffee beans all day? That might be more tedious than finding a needle in a haystack ...