Do subtle cultural differences sculpt face pareidolia?

Abstract

Face tuning to non-face images such as shadows or grilled toasts is termed face pareidolia. Face-pareidolia images represent a valuable tool for investigation of social cognition in mental disorders. Here we examined (i) whether, and, if so, how face pareidolia is affected by subtle cultural differences; and (ii) whether this impact is modulated by gender. With this purpose in mind, females and males from Northern Italy were administered a set of Face-n-Thing images, photographs of objects such as houses or waves to a varying degree resembling a face. Participants were presented with pareidolia images with canonical upright orientation and display inversion that heavily affects face pareidolia. In a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm, beholders had to indicate whether each image resembled a face. The outcome was compared with the findings obtained in the Southwest of Germany. With upright orientation, neither cultural background nor gender affected face pareidolia. As expected, display inversion generally mired face pareidolia. Yet, while display inversion led to a drastic reduction of face impression in German males as compared to females, in Italians, no gender differences were found. In a nutshell, subtle cultural differences do not sculpt face pareidolia, but instead affect face impression in a gender-specific way under unusual viewing conditions. Clarification of the origins of these effects requires tailored brain imaging work. Implications for transcultural psychiatry, in particular, for schizophrenia research, are highlighted and discussed.

Dynamic brain communication underwriting face pareidolia

“…As expected from previous behavioral work ( 3 , 10 , 11 ), the impact of display inversion on face response rate was highly significant (face pareidolia with upright orientation, mean ± SD, 0.576 ± 0.171; median (Mdn), 0.612, 95% CI [0.500 to 0.652]; with inversion, 0.363 ± 0.241, Mdn, 0.330, 95% CI [0.256 to 0.470]; Wilcoxon signed-rank test, z = 3.66, P = 0.0003, two-tailed; effect size, eta squared η 2 = 0.61). The difference in face response rate with upright orientation and no-face response rate with display inversion (0.628 ± 0.243, Mdn, 0.656, 95% CI [0.520 to 0.736]) was nonsignificant (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, z = 0.70, P = 0.487, two-tailed; n.s.).…”

“…This work was aimed at investigation of brain circuits underpinning face pareidolia. For this purpose, we administered a face pareidolia task with a recently created set of naturalistic Face-n-Thing images ( 3 , 10 , 11 ) while recording MEG activity. The outcome indicates: i) At early processing stages, for images either triggering face pareidolia or not, the bursts of gamma oscillatory activity (40 to 45 Hz) are rather similar.…”

“…The task and procedure were similar to those of our previous behavioral studies and described in detail elsewhere ( 3 , 10 , 11 ). We adapted them for the requirements of MEG recording.…”

“…Face pareidolia is a tendency to see faces in nonface images such as grilled toasts, landscapes, or still-life fruits ( 1 – 14 ). This ability implies high tuning or a kind of predisposition to a coarse face scheme such as two eyes above a mouth in the visual input ( 10 , 15 ).…”

“…With this purpose in mind, we used MEG, a noninvasive brain imaging technique providing for high temporal resolution. We analyzed gamma oscillatory activity during processing of Face-n-Thing images ( 3 , 10 , 11 ) either with canonical orientation or display inversion that severely impedes face pareidolia ( Fig. 1 ).…”