Do you think everyone sees themselves differently than how they truly look?

We think we have eyes analogous to perfect cameras and that they send their signal to a decoding screen like an ultra-high definition TV that we, as disembodied homunculi, are observing. Research proves nothing could be further from the truth. Out brains have a powerful inference engine interpreting visual input with algorithms that try to match what we see to known things. That is why it is so easy to see the Virgin Mary in a flower arrangement, the face of Jesus in a toasted tortilla, or the Man in the Moon. Watch this optical illusion on YouTube. It appears to be a face that rotates 180 degrees in one direction, then switches course and rotates backwards. Only if you watch it long enough will your brain finally “get it” and “see” that it is actually a hollow half mask with features drawn on both sides. It isn’t reversing rotation at all. It is constantly going 360 degrees around in a single direction. The apparent reversal of rotation comes from out brains algorithms trying to match it with known phenomena.

I think the way we look at ourselves is a lot like the way we view scenery. For example: I live in Alaska. It’s really pretty, but I grew up here, so I don’t appreciate it. I think we spend too much time looking at ourselves, and we just don’t see the things that are beautiful anymore. We look past that, and we only see the things we’d like to change.
Shane Koyczan said “If you can’t see anything beautiful about yourself, get a better mirror. Look a little close. Stare a little longer, because there’s something inside of you that made you keep trying, despite everyone who told you to quit.”

I am surprised when I see photos of myself by how square my body looks but I think I have a pretty accurate image of my face.

As I got fatter the view of myself became more distorted. I am shocked sometimes when I see myself in a photo; I think I am not that heavy. The whole world doesn’t see us one way. People also have their perception relative to what they have around them. People who live in communities where everyone is very heavy would see me as very thin. If everyone is skinny I am overweight, I look bloated. It’s wierd, even my face I don’t really know how I look. It’s like I don’t think about my face much. I make it up all pretty in the mirror, but really after I walk away from the mirror in the morning I don’t think about what I look like at all. I’ll see myself in a photo and think it doesn’t look like me, and my husband will tell me it does. Now with camera phones and photos everywhere I am a little more used to what I look like.

I think it is inaccurate. For example a lot of people at random times have said I look like various actresses or females in certain adverts. I was totally puzzled when I saw them. I simply cannot see it. Each person had a different actress but oddly two seemed to pop up the most.

I think personally my body image is distorted by my mood. I can eat a huge meal and decide I am overweight when I look in the mirror, the same for when I am depressed. When I am up, I think I look very OK. I also think people collect a number of different features they think of as attractive or not so attractive in their minds and these are more prominent when they look at a certain someone.

Dove did a study. Women see themselves as uglier than they actually are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

@marinelife Great link. I had seen some of the women who had this done on a show not long ago, and how they did the process. The women I saw were mostly mother and daughter describing each other. Besides the women, I was just fascinated by the sketch artist. The talent to draw a face without ever seeing the person just be verbal description. While I was watching the show I wondered how I would even describe my face?

I think that most of us are aware of our very realistic flaws, but we tend to look past these flaws when we are looking in a mirror. I grew up very thin, then after I broke my back, I began to put on weight…. and when I am trying on clothes while shopping, I still expect to see my ‘thin self’ when I look into the mirror and it always shocks me when I see how heavy I have become. However, none of us sees ourselves the way others see us. It reminds me of the old phrase “Oh what a gift it would be to see ourselves as others see us”.

Everyone? I doubt it. I think I look better than I really do. I’m aware of that, but it gives me more confidence to think positively. But I hate getting home and finding I spent the whole day with a streak of dirt across my skirt or spinach on my tooth. Don’t you?

Regardless of how I see myself, I doubt that all others see me in exactly the same way as each other, impossible.

Yes

Guys do.

hmm I think I see myself slightly worse. I notice my incredibly crooked nose, huge forehead, and the fact that one side of my face is actually wider/fatter than the other (not joking). Yet if I point it out to anyone else, even my family and boyfriend, they look at me as if I’ve grown a third ear. They don’t see the little imperfections I notice. I think we tend to know ourselves so well that we notice the flaws and not necessarily the good. If you stare at anything too long you start being able to point out negatives I guess