80 Times People Had No Idea What They Were Looking At, So They Asked Online (New Pics)

Scrolling through this list of images likely drew out bewilderment. Maybe you were left with questions, much like the people who posted them. Either way, these images drew a strong reaction from you. 

That’s because our brain craves novelty, which includes bizarre, never-before-seen images. According to neuroscience professor Dr. Sylvain Moreno, such reactions have evolutionary roots.

“It’s rooted in survival,” Dr. Moreno told Science World. “We need to understand if novel stimuli in our environment are dangerous or not.”  

For an analogy, Dr. Moreno used the example of a musician hearing a new sound for the first time. As he explained, their brains are already trained to detect differences in sounds, and hearing a new one makes them react strongly. 

In some cases, confusion from something seemingly nonsensical creates interest. It’s likely why the “What” subreddit has a growing following, and it’s likely why absurd trends take flight. One recent example is the “6-7 craze” that became immensely popular among the younger generation. 

As clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Sam Goldstein explains, the confusing nature of the 6-7 mania turned it into a communication tool in itself.

“That difference, adult confusion versus kids’ delight, is what makes the whole (6-7) thing so interesting,” Dr. Goldstein wrote. “The trend itself doesn’t really matter. What matters is what it shows: How kids connect, how they talk, and how they make sense of the world they’re growing up in.”

Seeing an image that doesn’t make sense can also briefly disorient us. We try to figure out what we are looking at, which triggers a “sense-seeking” drive. Our brains essentially go into overdrive, trying to make sense of the absurdity. 

According to linguistics expert and educator Julie Sedivy, it’s because we humans are “meaning-extraction machines.”

“When we're faced with a message that's been created by another human being for the purpose of communicating with us, we throw all our cognitive energies into trying to decipher its intent,” Sedivy explained. 

“We're masters at reading between the lines. Think of all the meaning we suck out of a casual ‘hey, are you doing anything on Friday?’”