What it means if you spot faces in objects - Susan G. Wardle episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 16, 2026 · 6 MIN

What it means if you spot faces in objects - Susan G. Wardle

from TED-Ed · host TED-Ed

Dig into the phenomenon of face pareidolia, which is the tendency of our brains to see faces in everyday objects.--Imagine opening a bag of chips, only to find Santa Claus looking back at you. Or turning a corner to see a building smiling at you. Humans see faces in all kinds of mundane objects, but these faces aren’t real— they're illusions due to a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. So why exactly does this happen, and how far does this distortion go? Susan G. Wardle explores why we see illusory faces.Lesson by Susan G. Wardle, directed by Oksana Kurmaz.Support Our Non-Profit Mission----------------------------------------------Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreonCheck out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop----------------------------------------------Connect With Us----------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletterFollow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebookFind us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitterPeep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram----------------------------------------------Keep Learning----------------------------------------------View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-our-brains-see-faces-everywhere-susan-g-wardleDig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-our-brains-see-faces-everywhere-susan-g-wardle#digdeeperAnimator's website: https://kurmaz.meMusic: https://soundcloud.com/aim-music----------------------------------------------Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Matthew Neal, Denis Chon, Julian Oberhofer, Monte Carroll, Eddy, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Gerardo Castro, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, Abdulmohsin Almadi, AJ Lyon, Geoffrey Bultitude, Mi Mi, Thomas Rothert, Brian Elieson, Oge O, Weronika Falkowska, Nevin Spoljaric, Sid Chanpuriya, Anoop Varghese, David Yastremski, Noah Webb, Roberto Chena, Oliver Koo, Luke Pisano, Andrea Gordon, Aleksandar Donev, Nicole Klau Ibarra, Jesse Lira, Ezekiel Raui, Petr Vacek, Dennis, Olivia Fu, Kari Teffeau, Cindy Lai, Rajath Durgada Manjunath and Dan Nguyen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dig into the phenomenon of face pareidolia, which is the tendency of our brains to see faces in everyday objects.--Imagine opening a bag of chips, only to find Santa Claus looking back at you. Or turning a corner to see a building smiling at you. Humans see faces in all kinds of mundane objects, but these faces aren’t real— they're illusions due to a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. So why exactly does this happen, and how far does this distortion go? Susan G. Wardle explores why we see illusory faces.Lesson by Susan G. Wardle, directed by Oksana Kurmaz.Support Our Non-Profit Mission----------------------------------------------Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreonCheck out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop----------------------------------------------Connect With Us----------------------------------------------Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletterFollow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebookFind us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitterPeep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram----------------------------------------------Keep Learning----------------------------------------------View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-our-brains-see-faces-everywhere-susan-g-wardleDig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-our-brains-see-faces-everywhere-susan-g-wardle#digdeeperAnimator's website: https://kurmaz.meMusic: https://soundcloud.com/aim-music----------------------------------------------Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Matthew Neal, Denis Chon, Julian Oberhofer, Monte Carroll, Eddy, Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Gerardo Castro, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, Abdulmohsin Almadi, AJ Lyon, Geoffrey Bultitude, Mi Mi, Thomas Rothert, Brian Elieson, Oge O, Weronika Falkowska, Nevin Spoljaric, Sid Chanpuriya, Anoop Varghese, David Yastremski, Noah Webb, Roberto Chena, Oliver Koo, Luke Pisano, Andrea Gordon, Aleksandar Donev, Nicole Klau Ibarra, Jesse Lira, Ezekiel Raui, Petr Vacek, Dennis, Olivia Fu, Kari Teffeau, Cindy Lai, Rajath Durgada Manjunath and Dan Nguyen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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What it means if you spot faces in objects - Susan G. Wardle

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This episode was published on June 16, 2026.

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Dig into the phenomenon of face pareidolia, which is the tendency of our brains to see faces in everyday objects.--Imagine opening a bag of chips, only to find Santa Claus looking back at you. Or turning a corner to see a building smiling at you....

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