Why do individual humans have such unique faces while animals have faces that are all similar? Is this purely perception? Are we actually just as similar looking to each other as the animals are?
In: 7
You know the old (racist) trope of “You all look alike”?
Well, it’s partially true due to the way the human brain works.
Looking at animals or people is a lot like reading. When reading, you first look at letters. Then you start sounding out words. Eventually, you can see the word as a single unit and focus on other stuff like the sentence and then the meaning behind it.
When you are around the people you grew up with, you learn to see all the various distinguishing details. It’s a sight word for you. You get it instantly and can go looking for the sentence and deeper meaning. You can see the details and pick out individuals.
When you are looking at people or animals that you are NOT used to being around, your brain gets stuck on sounding out the word. It goes “BIG CATEGORY” and kinda gets stopped there.
I grew up in a lily-white town in the midwest. I managed to be around enough black people over my life to get over the recognition issues with them. But now at the age of 51 I find myself teaching in an elementary school where over 30% of the students speak English as a second language, and Spanish as their first. And I am having notably more problems learning the names of the Latino children than the white or black children.
Which bugs me and makes me feel like a schmuck.
So I am looking at rosters and reading names while looking at faces. It’s last years’ pictures (or older) so it’s far from perfect. But any practice I can get in will help my brain start finding that deeper meaning, those distinguishing characteristics, a little faster.
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