Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female

Wardle, Susan G.; Paranjape, Sanika; Taubert, Jessica; Baker, Chris I.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2117413119

Cited by 36 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(118 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This method is believed to disentangle perceptual mechanisms from higher-order influences such as cognitive biases 79 . It is assumed that a hard-wired subcortical face detection machinery prioritizes early face detection even at potential costs of false positives 65 , 100 , and in such a way provides privileged access for face-like images to visual awareness. From this perspective, as SZ and TD individuals are rather similar at earlier stages of encoding face-like images under b-CFS conditions 79 , differences in face pareidolia between them may be considered of the cognitive rather than perceptual origin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Facial expressions (such as happiness) are reported to be processed in a similar way for both face-like non-faces and real faces presumably sharing a common underlying mechanism 63 . Face-like non-faces are readily perceived as having not only emotional expressions, but also gender and age 65 , 84 . Yet a tendency to judge face-like non-faces as male rather than female (‘ seeing men everywhere, even in toast ’ 111 ) contradicts earlier findings: face resemblance in Face-n-Food images is associated with ladylike impression 84 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Faces are valuable signals for efficient social interaction. Yet, social cognition including the sensitivity to a coarse face scheme may be deviant in schizophrenia (SZ). Tuning to faces in non-face images such as shadows, grilled toasts, or ink blots is termed face pareidolia. This phenomenon is poorly investigated in SZ. Here face tuning was assessed in 44 male participants with SZ and person-by-person matched controls by using recently created Face-n-Thing images (photographs of non-face objects to a varying degree resembling a face). The advantage of these images is that single components do not automatically trigger face processing. Participants were administered a set of images with upright and inverted (180° in the image plane) orientation. In a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm, they had to indicate whether an image resembled a face. The findings showed that: (i) With upright orientation, SZ patients exhibited deficits in face tuning: they provided much fewer face responses than controls. (ii) Inversion generally hindered face pareidolia. However, while in neurotypical males, inversion led to a drastic drop in face impression, in SZ, the impact of orientation was reduced. (iii) Finally, in accord with the signal detection theory analysis, the sensitivity index (d-prime) was lower in SZ, whereas no difference occurred in decision criterion. The outcome suggests altered face pareidolia in SZ is caused by lower face sensitivity rather than by alterations in cognitive bias. Comparison of these findings with earlier evidence confirms that tuning to social signals is lower in SZ, and warrants tailored brain imaging research.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Importantly, these areas can distinguish human faces from face‐like stimuli and also face‐like stimuli from non‐face‐like stimuli (Wardle et al, 2020). However, there is variability across participants and across illusory face images in the ability to perceive a face‐like pattern and how face‐like this pattern is perceived to be (Liu et al, 2014; Wardle et al, 2022). This variability may have been the reason why there was quite large variability in memorability scores in the imagined‐face‐like category of our second experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human faces and face‐like stimuli are more memorable

Kapsetaki

Zeki

2022

PsyCh Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have previously suggested a distinction in the brain processes governing biological and artifactual stimuli. One of the best examples of the biological category consists of human faces, the perception of which appears to be determined by inherited mechanisms or ones rapidly acquired after birth. In extending this work, we inquire here whether there is a higher memorability for images of human faces and whether memorability declines with increasing departure from human faces; if so, the implication would add to the growing evidence of differences in the processing of biological versus artifactual stimuli. To do so, we used images and memorability scores from a large data set of 58,741 images to compare the relative memorability of the following image categories: real human faces versus buildings, and extending this to a comparison of real human faces with five image categories that differ in their grade of resemblance to a real human face. Our findings show that, in general, when we compare the biological category of faces to the artifactual category of buildings, the former is more memorable. Furthermore, there is a gradient in which the more an image resembles a real human face the more memorable it is. Thus, the previously identified differences in biological and artifactual images extend to the field of memory.

show abstract

“…This implies that while male and female faces share many properties in common, the female face is positively coded by additional features or properties, relative to the male (cf. Wardle et al, 2022). Conversely, males, as the default percept, have fewer additional unique features that distinguish them from females.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric visual representation of sex from facial appearance

Gandolfo

Downing

2022

Psychon Bull Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We efficiently infer others’ traits from their faces, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. Here, we investigated how sex is represented in facial appearance. Based on previous findings from sex-judgment tasks, we hypothesized that the perceptual encoding of sex is not balanced but rather polarized: for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is “male,” and the representation of female faces extends that of the male, engaging activity over unique detectors that are not activated by male faces. We tested this hypothesis with the logic of Treisman’s studies of visual search asymmetries, predicting that observers should more readily detect the presence of female faces amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across three experiments (N = 32 each), each using different face stimuli, we confirmed this prediction in response time and sensitivity measures. We apply GIST analyses to the face stimuli to exclude that the search asymmetry is explained by differences in image homogeneity. These findings demonstrate a property of the coding that links facial appearance with a significant social trait: the female face is coded as an extension of a male default. We offer a mechanistic description of perceptual detectors to account for our findings and posit that the origins of this polarized coding scheme are an outcome of biased early developmental experience.

show abstract

Illusory faces are more likely to be perceived as male than female

Cited by 36 publications

References 51 publications

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

Human faces and face‐like stimuli are more memorable

Asymmetric visual representation of sex from facial appearance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About