We are exceptionally good at detecting patterns, and sometimes our pattern detection is a bit over-eager. One may philosophize that seeing a face that isn’t there was evolutionarily “cheaper” than missing a face that is. But the fact remains that we see faces in all kinds of everyday objects – a phenomenon that was termed Pareidolia.
The fact that your mind is capable of taking a circle, two dots and a line and turning them into a face is nothing short of incredible.
But still more incredible is the fact that you cannot avoid seeing a face here. Your mind won’t let you!
We humans are a self-centered race. We see ourselves in everything.
We assign identities and emotions where none exist.
And we make the world over in our image.
Smiley - Public Domain, source
OK, so we see faces in everything; “Big Deal!” you may say.
But in addition to seeing faces in everyday objects, we also attribute emotions and intent to those faces. We see a joyous cheese grater, a chilled out car center console, …
But if we attribute these emotions to objects that quite provably do not experience them, what does that tell us about our skills at guessing others’ internal state?
We attribute intent and emotions to everything and everyone around us, and very often we are mistaken. We have a need for guessing at others’ internal states, but we should really be aware of just how unreliable our estimates sometimes are.
After all: Joyous Grater might be up to no good ;)
Pareidolia / Liam / CC BY 2.0
Pareidolia – Audi Ad
Pareidolia – American Express Ad
Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things
Find more pareidolia images at:
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