The famous “face” on Mars or The squirrel face we see on the crane… Do you think it’s a coincidence that we see faces in objects? Scientists have investigated the cause of this interesting phenomenon.

This phenomenon is called ‘facial pareidolia’ and is the perception of objects by our brain. is displayed as real faces quite successful.

Why are our brains so good at seeing faces?

Scientists from the University of Sydney investigated the reason behind seeing faces in objects. Our brain is the world we encounter in everyday life. Because it needs to recognize faces quickly, It uses a similar mechanism for objects.

The study’s lead author, Dr. David Alais, explains the situation as follows: We are very progressive We are a social species and facial recognition is very important to us. “We need to quickly detect faces to understand whether a person is family, friend or foe, and to decipher their intentions and emotions.”

Our brains think they are perceiving a face when they see a nose above both eyes and a mouth below them.

Dr. Alais believes the reason for the situation is the type of energy our brains use. It’s a template matching process. Therefore, when we see something that looks like a face, our brains perceive it as a face and even recognize emotional expressions in faces.

This is an indication of how our brains have evolved to recognise faces. Team from the University of Sydney, to test the phenomenon He conducted several experiments. The subjects were shown images of real faces and facial pareidolia.

The subjects rated these faces for emotional expressions such as happiness or anger.

The results showed that the subjects also perceived the facial pareidolia images as real faces. Our brain; face-like shapes in objects, Using the same mechanism as real faces It worked.

The results of the study show that seeing faces in objects is just one way no childish fantasy reveals.

dr. Unfortunately, “When objects look like faces, our brains via a facial detection network they are actually being processed. “This shows that the expressions on those faces are being perceived by our brain’s facial expression processing system.” he says.

That’s why when we see a face in a cloud or in a cup, our brains see it too facial recognition mechanism plays a role and we see objects as real faces.

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