Antigravity hills are visual illusions

Psychol Sci. 2003 Sep;14(5):441-9. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.02451.

Abstract

Antigravity hills, also known as spook hills or magnetic hills, are natural places where cars put into neutral are seen to move uphill on a slightly sloping road, apparently defying the law of gravity. We show that these effects, popularly attributed to gravitational anomalies, are in fact visual illusions. We re-created all the known types of antigravity spots in our laboratory using tabletop models; the number of visible stretches of road, their slant, and the height of the visible horizon were systematically varied in four experiments. We conclude that antigravity-hill effects follow from a misperception of the eye level relative to gravity, caused by the presence of either contextual inclines or a false horizon line.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Automobile Driving / psychology*
  • Depth Perception*
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Female
  • Gravitation*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Motion Perception*
  • Optical Illusions*
  • Orientation
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Perceptual Distortion