They’re in clouds, electric sockets and even on toast. Why do humans see faces in everyday objects?

Faces: we see them in clouds, electrical outlets and even a $28,000 toasted sandwich said to look like the Virgin Mary. Known as face pareidolia, seeing faces in inanimate objects or patterns of light and shadow is a common phenomenon. So primed are our brains to detect facial features that we even see faces in meaningless visual noise, especially when the images are symmetrical, new research suggests. In a study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers showed...