Meet Lucy, an eight-month old rescue dog with some special markings on her. Her owners noticed that her ear basically looks like her own selfie because of the black and white spots. You can see two black ears, two eyes, a nose and mouth—it’s crazy.
Whenever Lucy’s owners (two New York students) take her on walks, people stop and ask about the ear. The first time I saw this photo, I legit thought a baby puppy was resting on her back. But no, it’s just some weird eye trick that makes our eyes detect a face on Lucy’s ear.
Kang Lee from the University of Toronto told the BBC that seeing faces in everyday objects is common, since humans are “primed” to be on the lookout for faces. He said the sensation reflects “the powerful influence of our imagination over our perception…It turns out it’s pretty easy to induce this phenomenon.” Apparently, what we see is very subjective—our brains need to make sense of the images coming from our retinas, and that involves making predictions and assumptions based on past experiences. That’s why we see faces more often than you’d think!
The BBC reports that you really do see what you want to see. Makes sense, because I definitely want to see puppy faces all day. So strange!