Does a fat person look thinner or fatter when he wears striped clothes?

People usually think that wearing clothes with horizontal stripes will make people look fatter. However, a British scientist, Peter Thompson, pointed out that clothes with horizontal stripes are actually more slimming than clothes with straight stripes. It can give people the illusion of being thin.

Thompson reported the findings at the British Association's Science Promotion Festival and was inspired by the Helmholtz square illusion. Thompson analyzed that the reason why horizontal stripes give people such an illusion may be because they can create a three-dimensional feeling, enhance the sense of depth, and make the width appear to be reduced.

Many people also believe that wearing black clothes can make people look thinner. Thompson agrees because the black circle on the white background looks smaller than the white circle on the black background.

Extended information

Peter Thompson, senior lecturer in psychophysics at the University of York, UK, recently reported the findings at the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He had people view comparison pictures of hundreds of women wearing straight, horizontal striped dresses and asked viewers to compare their bodies.

The results found that wearing horizontal striped clothes will not make people look fat. On the contrary, compared with wearing straight clothes, wearing horizontal striped clothes will make people visually look 5.7% thinner. Before this, most people thought that straight bars made people look thinner, while horizontal bars made people look fatter.

One of Thompson’s research theories comes from a phenomenon called the “Helmholtz Square Illusion.” Helmholtz, a 19th-century German scientist, discovered that two squares with the same area, decorated with horizontal bars, appear taller and narrower than those decorated with straight bars.

Thompson analyzed that the reason why horizontal stripes give people such an illusion may be because they can create a three-dimensional feeling, enhance the sense of depth, and make the width appear to be reduced. Many people also believe that wearing black clothes can make people look thinner. Thompson agrees because a black circle on a white background appears smaller than a white circle on a black background.

Reference materials

People's Daily Online - horizontal striped clothes make you look slimmer (new discovery)