I'm Grouchy I'm Happy

An illustration of a pink man's face that looks happy on one side and grouchy when flipped over. Mouth lines double as forehead lines for the reverse image. Above and below the illustration is red text. All on a yellow background. 

This graphic is a reversible or metamorphic image. From one view, the text says, “I’m Grouchy,” and we see a grouchy face on the man. But when you flip the same image upside down now, the man has a smiling face, and the text reads “I’m Happy.” The image has only slightly changed, his wrinkled forehead becomes a smile, and his eyes change from looking down angrily to looking up. The hair and ears have stayed the same.  These types of visuals use the phenomenon of multistable perception. Multistable perception is when an image can provide multiple, yet stable perceptions of the intended design. These types of images are often used as research tools in the field of psychology. One of the earliest examples of a multistable perception image is the duck-rabbit first published in a German magazine in the late 19th century.