This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta.

More than a hundred years ago, a Danish man named Edgar Rubin created an image.

It became so popular, you can still buy posters of it today.

The image is known as Rubin's Ways.

If you google it right now, you might see a black vase against a white background.

But if you stare at it, another image suddenly jumps out.

Not a vase, but two faces in profile, gazing at each other across a black background.

Rubin wasn't an artist.

He was a psychologist, and he was interested in how the mind deciphers visual cues.

There are many versions of Rubin's Ways.

There's one where you see either a duck or a rabbit.

Another where you see either a young girl or an old woman.

The point is that it's either or.

Your mind alternates between seeing one picture or the other, but not both.

I've often tried to make myself see both the vase and the faces at the same time.

It's really hard to do.

But if I succeed, it's usually only for a moment.

Then my mind snaps back into the groove of seeing either one picture or the other.

Edgar Rubin's creation is a metaphor for our times.

In so many ways, across so many domains, we are pulled toward either or thinking.

Are the people around us friends or foes, sinners or saints, superheroes or super villains?

What are we to make of the neighbor who brings us soup when we're sick, but also shares viral opinions on social media?

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