And yes, it does work with other faces besides Einstein.

Stephen Fry, on the BBC TV quiz show "QI", shows participants a rotating Einstein mask optical illusion, an example of a hollow face illusion, where "your eye tells you it’s poking outwards, and yet, it isn’t."

Your brain so wants to see a face curving outwards that it ignores other information and refuses to let you see that the face is actually curving inwards.

(Watch till the end of the video for a bonus illusion which makes the queen of England happy or sad using a five pound note.)

Optical Illusion with an Einstein Mask on QI

 

– Buy Einstein Hollow Face Mask at Grand Illusions>> 
– BBC2 QI>> 
– Hollow-Face Illusion, Wikipedia>>