comment: >
  
  Or maybe just assumed there is something wrong with the camera. Not all people believe in being possessed and stuff
context: This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  Optics engineer: Hmm, their eyes picked up the flash. Should we redesign to try to fix that?
  Product designer: Nah, people will want a camera with the flash built in. >
  
  Yeah I guess the people making it would notice. But the consumers wouldn’t all know what it is.
  Hell, there’s still people who believe in ghosts because of “light orbs” in pictures. And more recently video compression has led people to believe in lizard person conspiracies >
  
  Well the lizard thing is more because the elite class is made of almost all lizards >
  
  Looking at you, Obama. >
  
  I would like to assume it was a chemist/engineer developing color flash photography who knew better. >
  
  I mean, maybe, but I’d like to assume OP’s thought! That would have been hilarious! >
  
  Not quite the same but there were churches that believed cameras would steal your soul.
  Source >
  
  Was hoping this was a link to Crocodile Dundee. :) >
  
  Camera flashes go way back to the glass-plate era, so it would have been grey-eyes at first, and people would have realised that it was a reflection of the flash. >
  
  Is this only true in children? >
  
  Article says “almost exclusively  in children” >
  
  i remember finding a weird website/blog of people who thought little “orbs” of lights in photos were spirits >
  
  Yeah, that’s pretty common among people who believe in ghosts >
  
  Unless the person was scientifically minded vs superstitious... >
  
  They’d still freak out though. Like yeah eventually they’d be like “well there’s gotta be some reason for this.” But there would be a moment of “Jesus what the fuck?” >
  
  There's lots of funny stuff you can imagine people discovering. Like imagine being the guy who discovered popcorn. Sitting around one evening and all of a sudden supper explodes. >
  
  People in the past weren't stupid. They were smarter than the kind of person who thinks that simply being of an earlier time makes you stupid. >
  
  This is a great thing to understand. People have this misconception that humans are much smarter now purely because of technological advances >
  
  I’m not trying to say everyone was superstitious. Like, I don’t mean 100% believing someone is possessed and cowering in fear. More like “what the hell is with your eyes” >
  
  That's not what your post conveys >
  
  Welp. Bad phrasing on my part though. 
  Also I feel like Reddit there’s some sort of dichotomy of “people who think about everything rationally” and “people who believe in dumb shit”. Or maybe I’m just trying to justify why so many people felt the need to correct me >
  
  Redditors do be obnoxious fucks most of the time. Pay it no mind. >
  
  I mean, I used to think that when I was little lol I remember specifically my cousin had a picture of her dog in her room with that effect and it creeped me out so bad for some reason >
  
  Why is there a conspiracy for everything else on the planet, but not that? >
  
  I assumed someone saw red-eye in real life first and then tried to capture it. >
  
  Does it show up in real life? >
  
  Yes! I was once laying down kind of parallel with an open window talking to a friend who screamed mid sentence when I tilted my head a certain way haha. She then realized what was happening and took a video so I could see! Super weird but pretty cool >
  
  Oh wow! I always thought it was something to do with cameras picking up light in a different way than we do. But I guess I was mixing up film cameras with cheap digital cameras that don’t filter IR. 
  I guess it has something to do with the angle of the flash and how we don’t usually see each others eyes at the right angle and lighting for something like that.
  Edit: thank you for answering my question. Other people on here don’t seem to have much patience >
  
  
  I guess it has something to do with the angle of the flash and how we don’t usually see each others eyes at the right angle and lighting for something like that.
  
  I was told its because the flash bounces off the back of our eyes back into the camera, cameras with an anti red eye shines a light into your eye before the flash so your eyes contract in reaction and so less likely for the flash to bounce out compared to if they were dilated >
  
  Wow, that’s really interesting! And we don’t usually look at people getting light shined right into their eyes so we rarely see it outside of photos >
  
  They are, though. Every time you have your picture taken, a doorway in your soul allows a demon in. Or am I misunderstanding something. >
  
  No way. I'd just present it at my next "Vampires Are Real" News conference. >
  
  Jeez, I get it. It’s a dumb post. >
  
  I imagine it was more like “oh, looks like humans also do the reflective eye thing that we see in dogs and owls and stuff when we shine lights on them” >
  
  I think “humans exhibiting qualities typically seen in animals” is still pretty creepy to some people. Look at vampires and werewolves for instance. >
  
  Wonder how many kids these days haven't ever seen that effect. It must be like 15 years since I used a digital camera that did that. >
  
  Unlikely as that person would have been at the forefront of optical science and known in a second that they were seeing a reflection off the back wall of the eyeball.