Everyone is astonished that a new puzzle has arisen online. Three cartoon characters in a shower don’t seem like a huge concern. The photo looks fairly natural at first glance. All of them appear like ladies. But there’s a twist: one of them is lying about who they are. One of the three men is wearing a disguise, and you have to figure out who he is.
This type of challenge evaluates our ability to tell when something feels “off,” and it also reveals how easily our assumptions can lead us astray.
Figure A is the first thing that almost everyone who sees the picture will notice. Why? The shampoo bottle she has says “MEN” on it. It looks like it could spring out of the screen, and for a lot of people, it seems like a clear hint. We learn to connect items to gender, like shampoo for men and women. A woman probably wouldn’t use a bottle that says “men’s” on it. So, of course, most people say, “You got me!” That one has to be fake.
But the guy who made the puzzle wants you to think that. It’s a distraction, like when someone gives you the wrong information. The big letters on the bottle are designed to grab your attention and make you think the wrong thing. It’s like a magician waving his hand to hide what he’s doing.
If you take a second and look past the product placement, you’ll see something important: Check out the way Figure A is standing. Her arms are close to her body, her legs are close together, and her body is bowed a little. This position makes it look like you are modest or self-conscious. It is delicate, quiet, and maybe even a touch shy. Most psychologists and body language specialists agree that this kind of stance suggests that a person is feminine or doesn’t want to be noticed. Someone who was trying to hide something wouldn’t stand like way. If anything, it matches perfectly with what someone who belongs in that scene would expect.
Next is Figure B. Things start to become intriguing at this point. At first, nothing appears like an impostor, but if you look closely, you can see little signs that something is wrong. You might note that the stance is wider and more stable at first. Figure B stands with her feet apart in a position that shows confidence or power, which is a sign of masculinity in body language. Her shoulders are a lot broader, and her arms hang down more stiffly at her sides, which makes her look stiffer overall. She doesn’t look as comfortable in her spot as she does in Figure A or C.
Is there something else that is crucial to think about? The hair, or lack of it, is a big part of it. You can’t see any hair on Figure B’s head since there is a big pile of soap suds on it. In this scenario, you can easily see the hairstyles of the other two people. A lot of individuals wash their hair in the shower, so it’s not unusual for one person to receive soap suds on their head. When you think of it as a puzzle, it seems like someone is trying to hide something. It looks like it doesn’t require a lot of work. People who wished to hide who they were in a cartoon like this should have hidden their hair, especially if it looked quite different from everyone else’s.
This is the last one, Figure C. People don’t pay much attention to her, which could be her best trait. She moves around in a way that is natural and comfortable. One of her legs is slightly bent, and her arms are relaxed and open. Her face is simple, but it appears calm and pleasant. There are no props that get in the way or anything that looks too strange. She is just there. Getting along. That makes sense, as she is probably who she says she is.
In short, the shampoo bottle in Figure A might catch your eye, but her body language is normal. No sirens go off while Figure C is present. But how about Figure B? If you look closely at the picture, you can see the little things that stick out, such her stiff posture, soapy hair, wide stance, and so on.
This suggests that she is probably the most likely liar, pretending to be a man.
This challenge makes us examine what we think we know so well. We like to get answers quickly and trust what we see right away. The “MEN” label on the shampoo bottle is a red flag meant to throw us off, and it works—most people don’t take the time to look at the quieter details. If you take your time and really look at the characters—how they move, how they stand, and who they are—you will find the solution.
It also reminds us that our brains are continuously looking for ways to make things go faster. We use fast judgment to make sense of the world every day. We use it to figure out what’s normal, what’s not, and what feels right. But puzzles like this one highlight how easy it is to become lost when we choose the easy way.
Did the bottle of shampoo trick you? Or were you one of the few who noticed the subtle signs and looked beyond what was clear? No matter what, it’s a fun and hard puzzle to do with family or friends. When you see a cartoon mystery or a picture online that is hard to comprehend, try to remember to look past the labels and pay attention to how people act instead of what they say.
Get your pals to see who falls for the scam and who can find the true fake person lying in plain sight.
