A shared mechanism for facial expression in human faces and face pareidolia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288(1954): 20210966 (8 pages). Bellemare A et al (2022).

Humans spend so much time looking at each other that it's perhaps no surprise we see faces where they're not — on trees, clouds, the surface of Mars and, of course, toast.

The phenomenon is known as facial pareidolia (pronounced pari-DOH-lee-a) and is a subset as apophenia – a general term that describes our tendency to see patterns in even random data.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone's gotta tell you -- you're not actually seeing Jesus in your toast. It's just your pareidolia acting up.

For pareidolia in general (see elephants, drunk octopuses, etc.), the answer is somewhat muddled; but on the subject of faces, specifically, scientists have some very strong leads. Evolution ...

'It's normal to see Jesus on your TOAST': Humans are hardwired to see famous faces on everyday objects, claims study. Seeing faces in inanimate objects and patterns is known as face pareidolia ...

Professor Alais said: “Pareidolia faces are not discarded as false detections but undergo facial expression analysis in the same way as real faces. “We need to read the identity of the face ...

I love pareidolia, the psychological effect where we see faces in otherwise random or meaningless patterns. You know: It’s when people see the face of Jesus in wood grain or the Virgin Mary in a ...

Pareidolia never sleeps.That's the psych term for seeing patterns (usually faces) in random patterns. Like, say, the "face" on Mars, or Lenin in a shower curtain, or, of course, the mother of all ...

A mountain rock in the shape of a human face. Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Similar to Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "The Great Stone Face." Source: Gusman/Bridgeman Images, used with permission ...

Humans spend so much time looking at each other that it's perhaps no surprise we see faces where they're not — on trees, clouds, the surface of Mars and, of course, toast. But some people tend ...