A black-and-white picture shows a smiling 12-year-old girl with curly hair. Beneath it are four portraits labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4, each showing a smiling older woman said to be 85 years old.
The question sounds simple: Which woman is the girl today? Yet it is much more difficult than it first appears.
Look beyond the hairstyle
When trying to compare faces, viewers may consider the eyes, general face shape, expression and proportions. Hair color, styling and glasses are not reliable indicators because people change them throughout life.
Even facial features can change substantially with age, and lighting or camera perspective can make two pictures seem more or less alike.
Can the correct answer really be proven?
The four older faces in this illustration appear extremely similar. Without a genuine photo history showing that one of the portraits depicts the girl decades later, it is not possible to verify which number is correct.
So this image is best enjoyed as a visual guessing game, not as a legitimate identification test or proof of what someone will look like as they age.
Look carefully at options 1, 2, 3 and 4. Which one would you choose if you had to make a guess? Share your selection and the details that influenced it.
