Can you identify the animal hidden in each of these four pictures? According to a recent study, one should be easier than the others.
A study out of Nagoya University found that humans could identify blurred pictures of snakes more accurately than those of birds, cats, and dogs.
Participants were shown series of decreasingly blurry images of different animals and asked at each step to identify the animal as one of four choices. They were able to identify snakes with 80% accuracy at step 7 (shown above) but couldn't identify other animals as accurately until steps 9 or 10.
The results support Snake Detection Theory, the idea that our pre-primate ancestors evolved stronger visual systems to detect their "first and most persistent predator." According to the theory, the visual centers in our brain remain especially good at picking out snakes. Other studies supporting it have shown that children and monkeys react faster when identifying snakes compared to other animals.
The non-scientific demo above is ordered clockwise from top left: bird, snake, cat, fish.
See the full series from the study below:
And here's a chart showing results by animal:
