Even Monkeys See Faces in Things

Inkfish
By Elizabeth Preston
Aug 25, 2017 10:05 PMDec 18, 2019 7:24 PM
Paredoilia
(Credit: Taubert et al.)

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The impression that your cup of coffee is laughing at you, or that your laundry machine has googly eyes, is uncanny but common. It's even the subject of a Twitter account called Faces in Things with more than half a million followers. The account has featured winking chairs, moping suitcases and a smug lemon loaf. But this illusion, called face pareidolia, isn't uniquely human — monkeys can see it too. 

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