People’s perceptions of the world are easily impacted by the angle at which they view objects in it, suggests a new study.

This finding, made by researchers from The Ohio State University, was revealed by testing people’s ability to estimate the steepness of a hill. The study, recently published in the journal Perception, showed that most people, regardless of their visual orientation — or line of sight — will consistently overestimate its steepness.

Dennis Shaffer, lead author of the study and a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus, said his team’s research aimed to understand why this may be, as well as how manipulating a person’s gaze might result in notable differences in their perception.