old woman young woman drawing

AN OPTICAL illusion has re-emerged online and is baffling the internet.

"My Wife or Mother-In-Law" is one of the most well known illusions in history and now researchers believe what you see could depend on your age.

The illusion can be seen as two different women, one young and the other old, depending on how you look at the sketch Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Viewers can see a young woman facing away, or an older, hook-nosed woman facing leftwards.

If you are struggling to make them both out, you can see the younger woman's chin doubles as the older woman's nose and her ear as her eye.

The oldest version first appeared on a German postcard but the most famous version, seen here, was drawn by British cartoonist William Ely Hill and appeared in American magazine Puck on November 6, 1915.

An Australian study published by two psychology professors at Flinders University, claims that whichever figure you see relates to your age.

The study claims older people will notice the older woman first, whereas younger individuals will see the younger figure.

The study included 393 participants (242 males, 141 females) from ages 18 to 68, with a median age of 32.

On the left image a portion has been shaded to make the young woman's face more prominent, while on the right you can see the old hag

They were shown the image for half a second, and then were asked to reveal the gender and age of the figure they saw first.

Most of the participants saw the younger woman first, which could be because many ages of the participants were leaning towards the younger side.

When the researchers separated the oldest 10 per cent and the youngest 10 per cent of those surveyed, they found that the older set saw the older woman first, and younger individuals saw the younger figure.

The aim of the whole study was to determine if "own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level."

Another baffling optical illusion was sweeping across the internet a couple of months ago, making it viral.

An image, created by University of Texas academic, Professor David Novick, features 12 circles within multi-coloured horizontal lines.

Eerie optical illusion tricks your brain - but can you work it out?

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