Why, oh why, did I purchase and wear this mask of my own face?
The result is creepy and funny. I love the ingenuity of people!
Pawan Sinha, a professor of visual and computational neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pointed to a few principles he said might help explain the horrors and delights of these masks. One of these is the composite face effect:
“When we look at a person wearing this type of mask,” Sinha said, “even though we cognitively can see the top half is real, the bottom half is just an image, we somehow are compelled, from our natural processing strategies, to view this whole thing as a full face.”
"There’s also the still face effect at work: “It’s something that we have deeply ingrained in our visual system and our cognition that we want and expect another face to be dynamic.”
"So when the mask’s expression doesn’t change, that unmovingness is part of what makes it so creepy."
17
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
12 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Social experiment: Mask shoppers take pictures of their face, but receive a mask with a random person's picture.
Jinx5555555
Level 6
Aug 3, 2020
4
I saw a video that a teacher did with this type of mask. She said students can tell a teacher's mood by their face, so she got masks made with the lower half of all her usual facial expressions- happy to see you, I'm proud of you, knock it off, etc. Thought that was a good use!
JonnaBononna
Level 7
Aug 3, 2020
2
Neat. But does that mean you have to keep you eyes matching the silly grin on the mask? Ha, ha.
That could be a good thing but it could be some effort -- especially for the leftmost woman and the black guy on the lower row.
Some of the masks are livable though.
RichCC
Level 8
Aug 3, 2020
2
Those are hilarious. A little levity would help, maybe. I live in Central Rural Trumpistan, where we who wear masks are subject to dirty looks and comments from the local plague rats.
Deb57
Level 8
Aug 3, 2020
4
Ugh.... same here in Louisiana. There is now a statewide mask mandate and they hate it. I see so many out there with their mask below their nose... it's ridiculous!
I live in one of the more right=leaning areas (SW Florida), but I have a definite "attitude" about wearing my N-95 any time I'm out of the house. My attitude is: You people who don't wear a mask stay the hell away from me. I don't giver a damn how it looks. I don't want to breathe micro particles of your ignorant, infected fluids.
Same here in Texas. The MAGAts are such nasty humans!
Why not. If one has to wear them, at least find ways to make light of it.
Petter
Level 9
Aug 3, 2020
3
You're right: the masks are funny.
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.