# Right Brain vs. Left Brain



## Spangles Muldoon (Jan 5, 2005)

According to the test in the following article, are you right-brained or left-brained?

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... om=mostpop

In your comments, please tell us whether the functions associated with the left and right brain, respectively, and listed in the article, are in agreement with the outcome of the test in your case.

According to the test, I am left-brained. I probably do excel at left-brain functions more than I do at right-brain functions.

I find it virtually impossible to perceive the dancer to be spinning clockwise. Are you able to reverse the direction in which you perceive the dancer to be spinning?


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## njodis (Nov 8, 2006)

clockwise... impossible to see it going the other direction


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

Counter. I keep staring at it but no way it is going clockwise!


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## Spangles Muldoon (Jan 5, 2005)

mserychic said:


> Counter. I keep staring at it but no way it is going clockwise!


I just managed to reverse direction. This perception lasted for a couple of seconds, after which the spinning reverted to the original direction.

The trick may be to wait until you perceive one leg to be behind the other. At that moment, tell yourself that that leg is actually in front of the other.


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## mserychic (Oct 2, 2004)

Yea after staring at it since I posted I got it spinning the other way! I stared at the lower foot until it changed directions.


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

njodis said:


> clockwise... impossible to see it going the other direction


haha yup, same for me.

trouble is, the right-brained description doesn't seem to fit me at all :con


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## Spangles Muldoon (Jan 5, 2005)

There are more than a thousand comments about this test in the Freakonomics blog:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... -spinning/

Some of the comments in our thread echo the comments in the blog:



> clockwise at first, and then I stared at her foot to make her dance counter-clockwise. Now I see her both ways.





> It started counter-clockwise, then I looked at the corner of my monitor and it changed to clockwise. I can't get it back right now.


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## Disintegrate (Jun 28, 2006)

I saw her going clockwise first. When I read what was on the left then looked back again, she was turning counter-clockwise.

Whatever the case, she seems to be excited by all that spinning.


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## vintagerocket (Oct 18, 2006)

sonya99 said:


> njodis said:
> 
> 
> > clockwise... impossible to see it going the other direction
> ...


same here. it's driving me a little mad. i'd say about half of the right brain and half of the left brain descriptions fit me.


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## VCL XI (Jan 19, 2004)

Both, but mostly clockwise. 

Also, I'm slightly aroused.


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

Wait, I finally got it to go counterclockwise! For a minute...then I looked away for a sec and it was back to clockwise.


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

The dancer is clearly spinning clockwise. Her head is even leaning to the left! I dont see how anyone can see anything different.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

VCL XI said:


> Both, but mostly clockwise.
> 
> Also, I'm slightly aroused.


I'm right-brained, although I did flip directions .

....and I did notice her figure :lol


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## sprinter (Nov 22, 2003)

Counterclockwise for me. Left brained seems to be what I always get with these kind of tests. I can't get it to change direnctions at all. And yeh she does seem to have the perfect female physique.


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## njodis (Nov 8, 2006)

sonya99 said:


> Wait, I finally got it to go counterclockwise! For a minute...then I looked away for a sec and it was back to clockwise.


Happened to me, too... then I looked away and can't see it counter-clockwise anymore.


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## WineKitty (Nov 26, 2004)

Counterclockwise at first, read the print, clockwise...


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## Chrysalii (Jun 24, 2006)

clockwise, I got it to seem counter for a while, then I blinked and it went back to clockwise. It gave me a headache,
and I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice her figure :lol .

Doesn't matter, after reading the description, I'm very right brained.


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## WineKitty (Nov 26, 2004)

Chrysalii said:


> and I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice her figure :lol .


Wow....you realize its an animation right? :rofl j/k


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## Fiera (Sep 1, 2005)

Clockwise for me
I made my sister look at it and she saw both directions.


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## coldmorning (Jul 4, 2007)

Clockwise for me. The description fits me too. 

But the shadow is going counterclockwise.


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## Lonelyguy (Nov 8, 2003)

Clockwise. After staring at the legs for several minutes it finally changed direction, but it took deep concentration and several tries before I was able to see it spinning counter clockwise.


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## GraceLikeRain (Nov 9, 2003)

I can only see it clockwise :stu


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## ericj (Jun 20, 2007)

Clockwise. It took a long time and plenty of effort to reverse it... I did reverse it, but the default and most common (by a massive longshot) is clockwise for me. I think it has something to do with the timing of my recognition of the body form, but maybe not. It would be surprising if I was that right-brain-dominant considering how logic-oriented everything I do is.


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## Roberto (Aug 16, 2004)

I saw this posted on RealityCarnival. I can't see it go anti-clockwise. =/


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

If I close my right eye she turns counterclockwise, and if I close my left eye she goes back spinning clockwise. This is really weird.


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## Roberto (Aug 16, 2004)

copper said:


> If I close my right eye she turns counterclockwise, and if I close my left eye she goes back spinning clockwise. This is really weird.


Holy crap, me too. Then I couldn't get it to go clockwise again. That's weird =l


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

Here is a more detailed explanation on how the right or lefties operate. I am definitely a right brain thinker. That explains why I have always sucked at grammar and math.

http://www.web-us.com/brain/LRBrain.html


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

I thought the site said that most people see it anti-clockwise? But here it's up to 80% clockwise...i don't feel special anymore hehe.


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## Spangles Muldoon (Jan 5, 2005)

sonya99 said:


> I thought the site said that most people see it anti-clockwise? But here it's up to 80% clockwise.


Yes, it's very curious. Of course, our sample of 25 people isn't large enough to form any definite conclusions. However, nothing should stop us from speculation. Here are some hypotheses:


Perhaps people with social anxiety are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:23673]
Perhaps people who participate in voting threads are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:23673]
Perhaps people who enjoy tests that provide insight into their personal psychology are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:23673]


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## Kelly (Dec 12, 2003)

I see her spinning clockwise and I can't get her to change for the life of me. But I'm the exact opposite of the right-brained description (except for the "big picture" bit) and fit the left-brained description much better.

Have a nice day,
Kelly


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## SeaSwallow (Mar 8, 2007)

Clock-wise for me, although it changes. I showed it to my sister. Also to my mum, who at first couldn't figure out how me and my sister could see the figure spinning both ways. But we were all impressed by it (and all three of us saw it spinning clock-wise at the beginning).

And I definitely use right brain more (knew it before because I'm left-handed).


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## slurpazillia (Nov 18, 2005)

---


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## copper (Nov 10, 2003)

I been playing around with this for an hour today. I can make it go counter clockwise and then clockwise by thinking that I want it to do that. This is pretty cool. It is a good excerise for my brain.


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## sprinter (Nov 22, 2003)

I can get her to turn clockwise now sometimes but anti-clockwise still seems to be the default direction for me.


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## Tungsten (Dec 11, 2005)

It always starts out counter-clockwise but I can change it at will.

Sounds like a lot of us are mentally ambidextrous.


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## Maslow (Dec 24, 2003)

It seems to be different every time I look at it.


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## Strength (Aug 12, 2006)

That is a really neat optical illusion. I've seen static images like that, but never a 3-d rotating one. When I look at it, it always starts going CCW. It's only by focusing on the feet can I force it to go CW. It's interesting to note that the shadow is cast on a different spot depending on how you rotate it.
As for my personality, I'm one of those rare people who's very balanced in logic / math / patterns vs feelings / imagination / art. So I can't say. I would have thought that being balanced, I should see it spin both ways equally, but that's not the case for me.


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## ShyFX (Mar 6, 2006)

I see it spinning counter-clockwise. It wont change direction no matter what I do.


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## Andre (Feb 27, 2004)

I see the dancer spinning anti-clockwise, so I am left-brained.

Actually I got her to change directions at will after looking at it long enough.


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## starblob (Oct 23, 2005)

njodis said:


> clockwise... impossible to see it going the other direction


 :ditto


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## Strength (Aug 12, 2006)

Spangles Muldoon said:


> Perhaps people with social anxiety are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:1jzj7ocj]
> Perhaps people who participate in voting threads are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:1jzj7ocj]
> Perhaps people who enjoy tests that provide insight into their personal psychology are more likely than the general public to be right-brained.[/*:m:1jzj7ocj]


I think only the first option is true, the 2nd and 3rd could be true, but not likely, although it's very Logical of you to think of them. =)

I did a similar thing once where I started a discussion asking people what they were good at bad at, and a disproportionate # of them said that they were good in humanities and bad in math/science.


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## OneIsALonelyNumber (Mar 28, 2005)

Counter. As for the traits listed, I have a mix of both.

I was about to return to this site and say I couldn't make her spin clockwise, but then I looked away for a second, and when I looked back she was spinning clockwise! Also, I noticed at the point she had nipples.


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## borntosuffer (Feb 7, 2009)

clock wise at first but i found a trick to see it counter. get really close to the screen so u can just see her feet. now i see her going counter all the time lol


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## Monotony (Mar 11, 2012)

Clockwise but if I stare at it enough it starts to spin counter clockwise instead.


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## Mirror (Mar 16, 2012)

I saw counter, looked down for one second, looked up, and it was clockwise.

I think I'm both.


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## Jinxx (May 10, 2011)

I see the dancer spinning clockwise.


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## Bbpuff (Sep 1, 2010)

I saw both, but it was clockwise at first.


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## Tentative (Dec 27, 2011)

Counter-clockwise, but I can see it go in the other direction as well. It's actually quite easy to switch. A while ago, when I first saw this, I just kept trying to make it switch as fast as I could. Boredom, I guess. :roll


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## Witan (Jun 13, 2009)

At first I saw counterclockwise, then after a while I could switch to seeing it going clockwise, and after a little more effort back to counterclockwise.

It takes some effort, but I can see it both ways. I'd say I'm left-brained though, since I'm right-eye dominant (despite being left-handed).


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## AfarOff (Mar 29, 2012)

I DISPUTE THE VALUE OF THIS TEST.

It is clockwise for me but that supposedly means that I'm right brained which is like... the farthest thing from the truth ever.


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## Whitney (Oct 2, 2008)

Counter-clockwise and I can't get it to change at all... tried all the tips listed and nothing.

But of course left-brained fits me to a T


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## Bunyip (Feb 6, 2012)

....It changes nearly every time I blink. LOL.
When I first looked, it was going clockwise. I tried to get it to change, but could not. I scrolled down and read the list of attributes, and when I scrolled back up it was going the opposite direction. I blinked a few times, and it changed again. Then it went back. After that it kept changing when I would blink. When I squinted it would stay counter-clockwise.

Wat.


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## anomalous (Jun 12, 2004)

I'm the least right-brained person in the world, and all I can say is that she IS spinning clockwise... that's a fact. :lol


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

It goes both ways, but mostly clockwise.


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## Meli24R (Dec 9, 2008)

I can see it go both ways, but most often it's clockwise.


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## Elixir (Jun 19, 2012)

Cerberus said:


> At first I saw it going counter-clockwise, but after reading what was on the left, the dancer switched to going clockwise and I couldn't switch it back. Weird.


Same here lol.


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