This Fuzzy Cat-On-The-Stairs Illusion Will Reveal Whether You’re An Optimist Or A Pessimist

Have you seen this optical illusion where you can't seem to tell if the cat on a flight of stairs is going up or down? But whatever you decide, did you know that it can actually reveal more about your personality? According to The Sun, the image shared by The Minds Journal says the way you see the cat walking exposes your approach to life. So take a look, which way is the animal going?

If you saw the cat going up the stairs

This means you have an optimistic view of life and see potential and growth wherever you go. It also notes that “Your mind has been trained to look at ways of rising higher in life, so given a situation where you have the choice of rising higher than others or falling to their levels, you would inevitably be the better person."

If you saw the cat going down the stairs
This means you are a bit of a skeptic and pessimistic. “It may have been based on your experiences in life or just because of the sort of people you may have met that tilted your view of life towards the negative side,” according to The Minds Journal article. “But this means that you don’t trust easily now, you calculate before you commit and you are wary of people who seem too sweet. It may just be your way of tackling the world but you are much sharper and shrewd in your dealings, making it almost impossible to trick or deceive you.”
 

But what's the "right answer?" Sure, you might "perceive" it to be going up or down but what did the artist behind the image intend? Behavioral Science professor, Nick Chater of the Warwick Business School in the UK told CNET that there are two possible interpretations because of "the amorphous gray square at the top of the picture." He suggested that we focus on "the angle between the plane of the staircase and the surface represented by this gray patch." He continued, "When we see the cat as coming downstairs, the gray square is interpreted as ceiling -- and this makes an acute, roughly 45 degree, angle with the staircase. But when we see the cat as going upstairs, the gray square is now interpreted as floor -- and this makes an obtuse, roughly 135 degree angle with the staircase." So what's the final answer? "If we could only tell the 'slant' of the mysterious square patch in relation to the staircase, we would know if it was floor or ceiling, and so there would be no ambiguity. But the image cleverly leaves the gray square bereft of any clues. So we flip from one interpretation to the other," he said. Well, that didn't help at all now, did it? But maybe, that's just another lesson in life? Sometimes, things don't have to be logical or explained. Sometimes it's just about how we perceive things and move forward with that. Deep stuff!