Optical Illusion of Man Eating 'Dog's Head' for Breakfast Baffles Internet

An optical illusion appearing to show a man preparing to eat a dog's head for breakfast has left the internet feeling very confused.

It's important to stress that no dogs were harmed in the making of this particular story. Instead, one man was left to enjoy a delicious looking chicken steak while, unbeknownst to him at the time, social media went into meltdown.

People on the internet love to look at pictures and videos of dogs. Much of that is down to the way content of this kind makes them feel.

In 2019, a study published by Professor Jennifer Golbeck from the University of Maryland highlighted the positive mental impact canine content has.

As part of her experiment, 1,880 subjects were asked to complete surveys designed to give an indication of their immediate sense of well-being.

They were then asked to view one of three social media pages: one showing a variety of dog pictures and videos, another showcasing funny, non-political content and a third focusing on former President Donald Trump's Twitter account.

Test subjects were then asked to complete another survey designed to gauge their sense of well-being. What Golbeck and her team of researchers found was that the group who watched the dog content reported a significant increase in their sense of well-being.

Those viewing the funny content showed a small but relatively significant improvement while those who were asked to view the Trump tweets suffered a very large decrease in their sense of well-being.

Leaving aside the reaction to the former president, the study highlighted the positive role happy dog content can play in boosting our overall wellbeing. That may also go some way to explaining why so many on social media were quick to interpret a seemingly ordinary meal as something altogether far more sinister.

It all started when a Twitter user, Mr. Kimm from Kenya, posting as Keam_254, shared a picture of the meal he was about to eat. "It was just some old fashioned fried onion rings and a chicken steak," Kimm told Newsweek. "As an X user I take my account as my diary. I post what I'm doing or where I'm, anytime. It was just a random post."

Writing alongside the image, Kimm explained: "Fried onion rings and roasted chicken for breakfast, money is good."

It's not uncommon for people on social media to take pictures of their food. In fact, it's become something of an art form. However, there was something about the angle of Kimm's picture and the positioning of the chicken on his plate with the herbs on top or even the onion rings that quickly had people on Twitter saying the same thing.

"Why does it look like a dog's head though," one user commented, while another asked: "I'm not the only one who thought I saw a dog's face/head when I scrolled past at first right?" A third commented: "I thought I saw a dog's head," with a fourth adding: "Is that a dogs head? I'm so confused."

There was acknowledgement that what was being presented as an optical illusion, with one user writing: "Wait am I the only one seeing this or is my brain confusing me?" while another said: "I saw a dog sleeping, not food."

At the time of writing, the tweet has been viewed over 31.7 million times, earning 2,700 retweets and over 3,500 likes.

Kimm was stunned at the response to his post. "At first I thought about deleting the post," he admits. "But later on when I looked at it more closely, I started to see the funny side. I can't believe I wasn't able to see it before I posted it."

This isn't the first time a pet-based optical illusion has left the internet baffled. A picture appearing to show a cat cut in half previously had people scratching their heads, as did an image of a dog that looked as if it had been decapitated. Another much discussed viral image appeared to show two dogs with one mouth.