Why can we always regard what is not human as a man's face? | | Science for 60 seconds |

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Do you think this looks like a face?

You may also have encountered staring at the parking meter, sliced cucumbers or the foam on the cappuccino and suddenly thought, "Oh, there's a face!" This phenomenon is called utopian illusion (pareidolia), and it is something we humans do.

Now, a new study shows that we do another thing: we tend to think that these illusory faces are gender, usually male. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"my sister Jenny and I, who grew up together, use a special word to refer to the faces we see in fantasy and misperception-beezup."

Said Susan Werdel, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The word beezup has no meaning in itself, but she must have felt it, and Werdel, now an adult, began to study it after a conversation with colleague Jessics Taubert.

"We were talking about the face neurons in the brain that give priority to responding to face images. These neurons also sometimes react to pictures of round objects, such as apples or clocks. This reminds us of the experience of seeing faces in objects. We want to know whether the response mechanisms of these facial neurons to misplaced faces are consistent with those to human faces. "

In a previous study, they found that fake faces on real faces and inanimate objects such as potatoes, teapots or washing machines activate the same brain regions. But they are also curious: what exactly do we see in these fake faces?

"for example, do these faces have a specific age or gender? Does it convey a special emotion? "

So the team began to collect all kinds of pictures.

"at first, we searched the Internet for illustrations of facial misperceptions. Now, people will send us the wrong views they see, and we will take pictures of ourselves when we see objects similar to faces outside."

They showed 3800 subjects 250 such pictures.

"We found that it is very easy to give some features to the illusory human face, such as seeing it as a frightened little boy or a grumpy old woman."

But the most surprising thing is... [view full text]

Does This Look like a Face to You?

Science-and experience-show that we most definitely see faces in inanimate objects. But new research finds that, more often than not, we perceive those illusory faces as male.

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

Hopkin: It's probably happened to you. You look at a parking meter or a pickle slice or the foam in your cup of cappuccino and you think, hey, that looks like a face. It's a phenomenon called pareidolia and it's something we humans tend to do.

Now, a new study suggests we also do something else: we tend to see those illusory faces as having a gender... .and most often we think they're male. The finding appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Susan G. Wardle et al., Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female.]

Susan Wardle: Growing up my sister Jenny and I had our own word for examples of face pareidolia: "beezups."

Hopkin: Susan Wardle, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Her term is total nonsense. But Wardle must have felt some connection with beezups. As a grownup, she set out to study them after a conversation she had with her colleague Jessica Taubert.

Wardle: We were talking about face neurons in the brain, which respond preferentially to images of faces. But they also sometimes respond to pictures of round objects, such as apples or clocks. That reminded us of the experience of seeing faces in objects. And we thought it would be fun to find out whether the face regions of the brain respond to illusory faces in a similar way to real faces.

Hopkin: Indeed, inan earlier study, they found that the same brain regions activated by actual human faces were also triggered by faux faces in inanimate objects, like potatoes or teapots or washing machines. But that made them wonder: what do we see in these illusory faces?

Wardle: For example, do these faces appear to be of a particular age or gender? And do they have a specific emotional expression?

Hopkin: So they set out to collect a variety of images.

Wardle: We started by finding examples of face pareidolia on the internet. Now, people send us their own examples. And we also take photos of illusory faces that we see out in the world.

Hopkin: They showed 250 of these photos to some thirty-eight hundred volunteers.

Wardle: And we found that people readily attribute these features to illusory faces. For example, a given illusory face might look like a fearful young boy or a grumpy older woman.

Hopkin: But most striking of all... [full transcript]

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Paper information

Wardle, S.G., Paranjape, S., Taubert, J. And Baker, C.I., 2022. Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119 (5).

Doi:?10.1073/pnas.2117413119

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