writing: “I’ve seen the explanation. My eyes still refuse to believe it.”
The bizarre reaction helped push the image to more than 24 million views online.
And once people finally understood what they were actually seeing, many admitted they felt ridiculous for not noticing it sooner.
The photo is actually something far more ordinary
Despite the endless confusion online, the real answer turned out to be surprisingly simple.
The viral image does not show a neck at all.
It’s actually a close-up photo of a man’s arm with his hand tucked casually into the pocket of a pair of trousers.
What people believed was a long, skinny neck is actually the man’s forearm.
The object mistaken for an Adam’s apple is simply his wrist bone.
And the black ‘necklace’ around the supposed throat is actually a braided bracelet wrapped around his wrist.
Once another user posted a zoomed-out version of the original image, the illusion suddenly became obvious to many viewers.
But interestingly, others admitted the cropped version continued tricking them even after learning the truth.
Every time they looked back at the photo, their brains reverted straight back to seeing the fake neck again.
That inability to “unsee” the illusion is exactly why the image became such a viral sensation.
