Science explains why hills look steeper from a distance than they actually are
Depending on your vantage point, you may perceive the hill in front of you steeper than it really is by a lot more, “as humans, perception is everything.”
Going for a hike in rugged terrain you’ve perhaps noticed that at the start of a climb, the slope of a hill appears much more daunting than once you’re actually on your way up it. You’re not alone and scientists now know why it is, verifying long-held theories.
“We saw a lot of our and others’ predictions pan out,” said Dennis Shaffer, a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus and lead author of a study published in the journal Perception.
Changing your gaze relative to an object reduces perception of steepness
The team of researchers from Ohio State University ran a couple of experiments to test their hypothesis.
In one, they had 36 participants estimate the slant of four wooden ramps from a position seven feet away, either lying down or sitting on a yoga mat.
In the second, They performed the same task but this time, the participants did so sitting either cross-legged on a yoga mat or while standing on the third rung of a steep ladder as they determined the slope of the ramp.
Results from both scenarios showed that when a person’s point of view was higher with regard to the slope, their overestimation of its steepness was reduced. “In general, people overestimate the slopes of surfaces by a factor of 1.5, so most people would estimate a 30-degree hill to be 45 degrees,” Shaffer explained of the team’s findings.
Brooke Hill, co-author of the study and an undergraduate student in psychology at Ohio State Mansfield, told the campus newspaper, Ohio State News, that because this study tested a wider range of slopes as well as eye heights, they were able to find a solid connection for how this affected people’s perception.
In also means that taller people perceive the world differently than shorter people. Likewise, those seated in a car see slopes far differently than someone in a truck or bus.
Similarly, where you are relative to a hill will also affect how you perceive the slope. “If you’re driving toward a hill that you see in the distance, it typically looks a lot steeper from far away than when you get right on it. Part of that is because of the way you’re looking at it, you’re changing your gaze relative to the object,” said Shaffer.
“We don’t realize that as humans, perception is everything,” said Hill.
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