Looking into Mona Lisa’s eyes

The Mona Lisa Effect —the impression that the eyes of a person in a portrait are following the viewer — ironically is not seen in the Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous painting, scientists say. “People are very good at gauging whether or not they are being looked at by others. Perceptual psychology demonstrated this in the 1960s,” said Gernot Horstmann, of Bielefeld University. “People can feel like they’re being looked at from both photographs and paintings,” said Horstmann, one of the authors of the study published in the scientific journal i-Perception. “With a slightly sideward glance, you may still feel as if you were being looked at. This was perceived as if the portrayed person was looking at your ear, and corresponds to about 5 degrees from a normal viewing distance. But as the angle increases, you would not have the impression of being looked at,” said Horstmann. “Curiously enough, we don’t have to stand right in front of the image in order to have the impression of being looked at — even if the person portrayed in the image looks straight ahead,” said Sebastian Loth, from Bielefeld University. “The effect itself is undeniable and demonstrable. But with the Mona Lisa, of all paintings, we didn’t get this impression,” said Loth. In order to test this observation, researchers had 24 study participants look at the Mona Lisa on a computer screen. Researchers gathered more than 2,000 assessments this way. “The participants in our study had the impression that Mona Lisa’s gaze was aimed to their right-hand side. “Thus, it is clear that the term Mona Lisa Effect is nothing but a misnomer. It illustrates the strong desire to be looked at and to be someone else’s centre of attention,” he said.—PTI