Book 2, Question 18
Why Do We See Faces in Clouds?
Have you ever looked up and seen a smiling face in a cloud? The brain is a face-finder! It would rather guess face than miss a real one.
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 2
More fun facts
- Seeing faces in things like clouds, toast, or houses is called pareidolia. You say it pa-ray-DOY-lee-ah.
- The brain spots something as a possible face in just a few milliseconds.
- Even after we know it is not a real face, the brain keeps reading its expression like a real face.
- The parts of the brain that respond to faces are also sensitive to the shapes of other objects.
- Space photos can trick us too. Many people saw a hand in a 2009 NASA X-ray image of a spinning dead star.
- The Viking 1 spacecraft took a photo that seemed to show a carved face on Mars.
Questions kids ask
Is it normal to see faces in things?
Yes. Face pareidolia is very common. Our brains are tuned to find faces fast.