How many faces do you see? Viewers who can spot all 10 hidden men and women in optical illusion are in top 1%

A strange optical illusion challenges viewers to pick out all of the hidden faces within an image. The illusion, named ‘The Leader’s Tree’, features a drawing of a tree with the face of a man and a woman looking towards each other at either side of the trunk.

It is said that the artwork, which was supposedly drawn back in 1880 for Harper’s Illustrated, includes the faces of Margaret Thatcher and ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, although nobody knows for certain.

How many faces do you see?

A total of 10 famous faces are all carefully concealed within the tree branches and trunk in the image, but it is claimed that only 1% of viewers can spot them all.

On first glance, the faces of a man and a woman can easily be spotted at the base of the tree, but the remaining eight require a little more focus to detect.

The image is very similar to a viral illusion shared on TikTok that asks viewers to pick out the hidden tigers within a jungle scene. The puzzle, shared by TikTok user Hectic Nick, has racked up almost 100k likes on social media as users try to find the big cats.

There are 16 to find in total, but only four are immediately obvious. If you look at the image more closely you should be able to pick out the faces of tigers lurking in the trees, foliage and rocks around the jungle.

More faces to find

Another illusion that puts viewers’ power of perception to the test is the image of a man who is looking sad. The image, shared on TikTok by presenter Dean Jackson, also contain the face of an angry man, but many viewers struggled to pick the second face out.

Mr Jackson explains: “Right now, you’re seeing the face of a man who’s looking a little bit sad. “It’s said that just under one per cent of people can also see an angry face as well.”

Those who struggle to find the angry face are advised to cover part of the image with their finger - on the nose just below one of the eyes - to help pick it out. He says: “If you can’t see the angry face, put a finger on the screen just there - hold it for a second.”

Several TikTok users took to the comments to vent their frustration saying they still could not pick out the angry face. One user wrote: “I can’t see the angry face at all.”

Another said: “What angry face? And I normally get these.”

“Nope. Still can’t see it,” a third added.

Viewers tried to offer guidance in the comments, sharing hacks on how to pick out the second face. One user advised: “If you’re having trouble, imagine the ear as the eye.”

“Bare part of cheek is new nose. Right eye is ear. Left part of new face is in shadow,” another said. A third wrote: “"Cover from the top of his head all the way down the right of his face.

"Tilt your phone slightly to the right and he has one black eye and one white one."