Can you see circles or rectangles? Does the answer depend on where you grew up?

[etiam]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/05/optical-illusions-see-world-perception

[fracus]

They discuss people from the educated, democratized world see rectangles while a group from Namibia see circles because, they hypothesize, their world isn't highly "carpenterized" with right angles and straight lines. So could this not be simply because they don't know what a rectangle is, and so categorize these close loops as circles? I don't understand the acceptance it is an optical illusion.

[robocat]

If you don't see the circles, this shows what to look for:

https://i0.wp.com/mentalbomb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/...

[chrsw]

At first I saw rectangles then I searched for the circles and found them. Now I'm having a hard time going back to seeing rectangles.

[_wire_]

  ________
 /        \
 |        |
 \________/

Do you see the above as a circle or a rectangle?