Professor Atsunori Higashiyama of the Faculty of Letters, Ritsumeikan University and Professor Kohei Adachi of the Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University were selected for the 2016 Ig Nobel Award for Perception Awards for research and achievements that made people laugh and think. When they leaned forward and looked from the crotch to the back, they jointly researched the crotch peeping effect, which looks smaller than it really is.This is the 2th consecutive year that Japanese people have won the award.
According to Ritsumeikan University, when you look into the scenery by looking through your crotch, the top and bottom are upside down, and you feel that the depth is less than when you look at it while standing.The Japanese knew the effect of crotch peeping empirically, such as the custom of peeping at the crotch and looking at the scenery at Amanohashidate, Kyoto Prefecture, which is one of the three most scenic spots in Japan.
Professor Higashiyama and his colleagues conducted an experiment in which a total of 90 subjects were asked to look into the crotch and guess the size and distance of a triangular plate placed at a distance.As a result, when I looked into my crotch, I found that the triangular plate looked smaller than when I was standing, and I felt that it was near.
When I put on my upside-down glasses and looked into my crotch, I found that the scenery I could see was the same as when I was standing.However, even in that case, an optical illusion occurred as in the case of looking into the crotch without wearing upside-down glasses.Professor Higashiyama believes that the posture of leaning forward is related to the optical illusion.
Professor Higashiyama said, "I felt the depth of American scholarship that seriously took up and evaluated this kind of alien research. For young students and researchers, it is interesting that no one does it. I want you to try what you think. "
