Why do we see faces in our toast?
Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia
Why do we see faces in toast? Brain scans show our face-spotting areas light up even when there’s nothing there.
Ig Nobel 2014
Volunteers in a brain scanner looked at pictures of pure visual static and were told that some of them hid a face or a letter. In fact, none did.
People still reported seeing faces about a third of the time, and the brain’s face-processing region switched on when they did. Our brains are so keen on faces that they’ll happily find one on breakfast.
Your toast is not looking at you. Your brain just really wants it to.