I know pareidolia (seeing faces in objects) is built into our brains, but does anyone know why or where it comes from?
In: Biology
Because we are a highly social species that uses our faces to communicate and tell each other apart, but our faces don’t actually differ from each other by a very wide margin compared to background noise.
So, from an evolutionary and neurological standpoint, we’re left with the options of:
Develop more complex and diverse faces.
Develop better generalized memories, so we can remember any face-size area of face-like complexity.
Develop other methods of telling people apart.
Develop the ability to learn how to differentiate faces.
Develop a method to tell faces apart, built into the brain.
Evolution went with the last one. And also the second and third to an extent. “Why” isn’t really a question for evolution. The other methods probably just didn’t emerge. Although some of them also probably wouldn’t have worked as well.
But when you have a part of the brain that’s dedicated to doing that, it’s also going to overreact sometimes.
Kind of like how random crowd noises can sound like your own name, sometimes. You listen for it, so you hear it more than it happens.
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