Face pareidolia is a type of illusion in which our brain translates a pattern we perceive to a face or any object. Throughout the history of psychological studies, pareidolia was considered a common phenomenon more than just visualization. According to University of Queensland's School of Psychology expert Jessica Taubert, there have been hints that correlate pareidolia to the social cues we absorb and recognize.
Face Pareidolia and Social Cues
TETBURY, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 29: A man looks at an illuminated face on a tree at the launch of the Enchanted Christmas attraction at Westonbirt Arboretum near Tetbury on November 29, 2017, in Gloucestershire, England. The popular annual attraction, which features illuminations and interactive features along the trail, will take place on long weekends from 1 December until 18 December.
In a new study, contributing aspects of pareidolia were discovered. Taubert explained that the main interest of their latest study was to identify the social signals associated with the kind of face that people construct during pareidolia. Among the specifics that their study attempted to gather was the expression and biological sex of the abstract images that manifest during the illusion.
In their findings, Taubert and their team observed a striking bias of people towards gender perception. The conclusion was backed up by people's perception of the illusory faces, as most of the figures they saw contained more men than women. Although illusory faces have no biological sex, the bias was evident through the assessments of individuals from the faces with minimal details provided.
The results of the study suggest that the visual features being referenced by people during a facial evaluation are not much composed of facial details from women. The study was made possible through the efforts of over 3,800 participants. According to a report by Futurity, the subjects were presented with face pareidolia and faceless inanimate objects to identify whether the illusory figures have an age, biological sex, and emotional expressions.
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What Exactly is Face Pareidolia?
Taubert explained that pareidolia is processed through the same regions of our brain responsible for recognizing people's real faces. The expert said that, in theory, pareidolia tricks the brain. Due to the study's surprising results, the authors said that future research revolving around the illusory stimuli could be now be conducted to locate the brain regions involved in social perception and cognition during pareidolia.
According to an earlier study, face pareidolia involves how the brain process brain perceptions. Because illusory images are detected, our minds try to figure out the facial structure of the image, as well as the closest possible identity of the face.
The previous study, led by experts from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) School of Psychology, found that the part of the brain which extracts the information on facial recognition is also active whenever people experiences face pareidolia. Moreover, the construction of unfamiliar illusory images is induced by sensory adaptation, which associates information on something a person has already seen or repeatedly seen in the past.
The initial research on pareidolia found details that could help patients with cognitive disorders dealing with facial recognition issues, including autism spectrum disorder and prosopagnosia. The new study was published in the journal PNAS, titled "Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female."
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