If at one point you thought you saw the face of Jesus Christ on your breakfast toast, don’t worry, you’re not going crazy. You’re likely experiencing a case of pareidolia.
Live Science defines this as a brain phenomenon in which you may see or even hear something significant in a random image or pattern. In most cases, however, people often see human faces in inanimate objects.
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Now, for the question of “Why?” Experts have different theories and responses to this. According to Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Nouchine Hadjukhani, we humans could recognize faces from the moment we were born.
"If you take a baby just after a few minutes of life, he will direct his attention toward something that has the general features of a face versus something that has the same elements but in a random order," Dr. Hadjikhani told the BBC in an interview.
For University College London neuroscientist Sophie Scott, pareidolia can also be a result of our own expectations. In the same BBC interview, she also used the "Jesus face" in the toast example, stating that a person is likely to interpret based on preconceived notions rather than what is actually in front of them. And this is where pareidolia can be powerful for people who believe in miracles.
“We really want to see things like faces, we really want to hear things like voices, and our perceptual system will set out to do that,” she said.
Another interesting aspect of pareidolia is that it also involves emotions beyond the visual. As explained in a 2020 study published in the Psychological Science journal, it enables us not only to see faces but also to sense a personality.
As an example, the authors of the study used a house window that may make you feel as though a pair of eyes is watching you. It’s also why you may see a smiling face on a capsicum.
What about you, readers? Which of these photos grabbed your attention the most? What is it about them that stood out to you? Let us know in the comments!
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