Stare at the black hole and it grows. It doesn't, nothing moves.
What: Stare at the black hole. Give it a few seconds. It’s growing, right? Like you’re falling in. It’s not, the image is totally still. It’s by Akiyoshi Kitaoka (pronounced key-TAH-oh-kah), and in 2022 some researchers showed it to 50 people and watched their eyes [1]. The wild part: your pupils fall for it too. They open up, like you’re heading somewhere dark.
How To: Stare at the middle and let it build. Go full screen or get closer, bigger is stronger. Try the White hole too, it flips everything to a glowing white hole, black worked best in the study though. Set Hole Blur to 0 and it mostly dies, the fuzzy edge does a lot of the work. Dot Size at 0 is a fun test, does it still grow without the dots?
Explain It: Your brain is always guessing a little bit ahead. A dark fuzzy blob looks like a tunnel, so your brain guesses you’re moving into it, and the hole grows [1]. Your pupils get ready for the dark and open up, and the bigger it looked to someone, the more their pupils opened. Coloured and white holes did the opposite. About 80% of people saw it, so if you don’t, you’re not alone. So your pupils react to how bright your brain thinks things are, not just the actual light.
I've researched these optical illusions in my spare time but am clearly not any kind of expert and my explainations are pretty smooth brained, if you find something mis-cited, earlier examples, or general mistakes please new let me know via toymaker@toms.toys, be kind!