Abstract
People tend to see faces from non-face objects or meaningless patterns. Such illusory face perception is called face pareidolia. Previous studies have revealed an interesting fact that there are huge individual differences in face pareidolia experience among the population. Here, we review previous findings on individual differences in face pareidolia experience from four categories: sex differences, developmental factors, personality traits and neurodevelopmental factors. We further discuss underlying cognitive or neural mechanisms to explain why some perceive the objects as faces while others do not. The individual differences in face pareidolia could not only offer scientific insights on how the brain works to process face information, but also suggest potential clinical applications.
Highlights
Have you ever seen a face in mountains, clouds or everyday objects? If you have, you experienced face pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon of seeing faces in non-face objects or patterns
What exactly happens in the brain when experiencing face pareidolia? Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), researchers found that when non-face objects are perceived as faces, they would evoke early (∼170 ms) activation of face fusiform area (FFA), in a similar way to face processing (Hadjikhani, Kveraga, Naik, & Ahlfors, 2009)
While human brains seem to be hard-wired for face detection, the subjective face pareidolia experience varies from individual to individual
Summary
Cite this article: Zhou L.-F. and Meng M. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, Volume 14, e2.
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