Was it an optical illusion that made that bag look so heavy, or was it something else?

My brain is currently bursting with nothing but thoughts of salt and fat.

Things like the new environment or the nuances of human relationships.

I've left such noble worries on the shoe rack by the entrance for now.

The only justice for me right now is to rescue the 'most satisfying bag' from these convenience store shelves.

Dodging the temptation of the hot snacks by the register like I'm in The Matrix, I was drawn into the black hole known as the snack aisle.

Every time the automatic door opened behind me, a cold breeze would rush in, making me feel restless in front of the shelves as if it were urging me to make a choice.

That was when something strange happened.

Potato chips on the shelf with similar prices and similar net weights.

One was the familiar yellow package.

The other was a blue package I've been seeing a lot lately.

I reached for the yellow one without hesitation.

I don't even know the reason myself.

It just somehow looked like the yellow bag was 'packed fuller, with more inside'.

Gravity was lurking in a 150-yen choice

Apparently, people tend to perceive things lower down as being 'heavier and more stable'.

After getting home, while looking at the bag with a lukewarm can of beer in one hand, I suddenly realized something.

On this package, the product logo and photos are shifted toward the 'bottom' overall.

When I looked it up out of curiosity, I found that our brains hide a rather clumsy and human 'assumption' there.

In psychology, this is called a position effect, or embodied cognition.

Our brains are probably more influenced by the everyday sensation of 'gravity' than we think.

'Heavy things are at the bottom.'
'Things on the right side somehow feel more stable.'

Such physical experiences are automatically overwritten onto visual information.

In other words, just by placing an image heavily at the bottom of a package, the 'invisible scale' in our brains clanks and tilts, and we automatically decide, 'Oh, this must be packed full,' assuming that's just how it is.

Light things to the sky, heavy things to the earth.

Conversely, it is said that health-conscious foods that market themselves as 'light,' or diet cereals, intentionally place their logos in the 'top left'.

It is a presentation designed to make them look light and airy, like clouds floating in the sky.

When I think about that, my own brain starts to feel like a very simple machine, and I find it a little funny.

'Something heavier, something better value.'

Faithful to such primitive desires, I, exhausted on a Friday night, must have been unconsciously scanning only the bottom right of the packages.

Eating the last piece

In the end, once you open the bag, the contents are mostly the same.

As I carry the last piece to my mouth, I gaze at the 'bottom right' of the now-empty bag.

The physical weight is no longer anywhere to be found.

Yet, that 'false sense of weight' imprinted on my brain by the design remained there, looking as if it were the real thing.

The simplicity of myself, being easily manipulated by the placement of a 150-yen item and chuckling to myself that I had 'gotten a good deal'.

I feel that helpless clumsiness lingering heavily in the pit of my stomach, in contrast to the empty bag.

Even one's own brain can sometimes betray you.

Our daily lives seem to be overflowing with such deceptive, yet human-tinged 'wonders'.

▼ For those who want to gaze at a few more 'wonders'

Speaking of small battles at supermarkets and convenience stores, there is that moment when you struggle stubbornly against the dryness of your fingertips to open a thin plastic bag. It would take only a second if you used a wet towel, but for some reason, you just can't bring yourself to lose.

When you are about to head to the register, feeling like 'the line you chose is moving unusually slowly' is another classic trick your brain plays on you at the store.