You see two windows and a door—and your brain sees a face. This automatic recognition is called pareidolia, and it’s far more than a quirk. It’s a deep-rooted function of the human brain that shapes the way we experience the built environment, everyday products, and even how we emotionally connect with them.
Pareidolia: A Survival Trait
From an evolutionary perspective, seeing faces everywhere made sense. Spotting another person—even just a suggestion of a face—increased our chances of survival. The brain evolved to detect faces extremely quickly, even in ambiguous or abstract patterns. In fact, a 2017 neuroscience study showed that our brains process face-like objects using the same cortical areas activated by real faces. Magnetoencephalography studies have confirmed this early neural activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) (PMC).[1]
In AI research, deep neural networks trained on face identification and object recognition also develop pareidolia-like responses — meaning that our human tendency to see faces in objects may be an inherent byproduct of how intelligent systems recognise patterns (MIT News).[2]
Importantly, the brain doesn’t just see faces. It feels something about them.
Face-like patterns are instantly imbued with emotion, intention, and personality, even when we know they’re not real.
Designs that elicit pareidolia:
- Feel more approachable
- Are easier to remember
- Evoke a sense of companionship or familiarity
A University of Toronto study found that face-like features in products boost likability and purchase intent (Alley et al., 2014) [3], while the Journal of Environmental Psychology reports that facial expression cues in buildings influence perceptions of warmth, dominance, or friendliness (Nasar & Devlin, 2011) [4]. A 2022 peer-reviewed study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health detailed that human faces are the most commonly reported form of pareidolia in architecture and urban spaces, with machine-learning models able to detect emotional “expressions” on iconic architectural facades such as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye (Schneider et al., 2022) [5].
While pareidolia is about perceiving human-like shapes in patterns, anthropomorphism involves attributing human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human agents or objects. Pareidolia is a more immediate, subconscious pattern recognition (such as faces in clouds or car grilles), whereas anthropomorphism is the broader cognitive attribution of human characteristics to animals, objects, or concepts (Epley, Waytz, & Cacioppo, 2007; Sutherland et al., 2019).[6]
In sum, pareidolia shapes our instinct to find faces and meaning rapidly, influencing emotional connection and usability in design, while anthropomorphism extends this by assigning human-like agency and emotions to inanimate things. Both phenomena enrich our interaction with environments and products, blending perceptual and cognitive layers of human experience.
Image: Bolwoningen 1984, Hertogenbsch Netherlands, designed by Dries Kreijkamp
[1] Human-like face pareidolia emerges in deep neural networks optimized for face and object recognition
[2] AI pareidolia: Can machines spot faces in inanimate objects?
[3] Anthropomorphism, animism and pareidolia
[4] Do you see the “face”? Individual differences in face pareidolia
[5] Introduction to Pareidolia
[6] Anthropomorphism, animism and pareidolia
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