mo4ch:>Fake views: Da Vinci masterpiece doesn’t actually possess the ‘Mona Lisa effect’ | Mo4ch News

In a revelation that may shock art aficionados and pub quiz enthusiasts alike, the painting that inspired the ‘Mona Lisa Effect’, that strange feeling that the eyes are following you around the room, may not actually possess it.“People are very good at gauging whether or not they are being looked at by others. Perceptual psychology demonstrated this in the 1960s,” says Professor Dr. Gernot Horstmann, a specialist in eye movement and attention, and one of two researchers behind the damning revelations published in the journal I-Perception.Horstmann explains that if the subject of a photograph or painting is looking straight ahead out of the image, at an angle of 0 degrees, then the proper ‘Mona Lisa effect’ is achieved. Even an outward viewing angle of, say, five degrees can still produce similar results.“The effect itself is undeniable and demonstrable,” says Sebastian Loth, co-author of the findings. “But with the Mona Lisa, of all paintings, we didn’t get this impression.”In their s…