Sep 11 2009
A Mind Primed for Tasks
This morning I encountered this pic over at. PZ called it adorable, saying its the large eye that makes it so. I agree.
My psychological self wonders why. Do smaller eyes tend to be found behind partially drawn lids (to offer protection in possibly ensuing aggression)? Is vulnerability relatively “cute” . . . easier/safer to approach? Why does our brain make these particular assumptive short-cuts in perception?
When I look at the above photo I see a face with awfully odd, dangling lips. But of course, that’s no squid face. That’s an eye with appendages hanging from the body where my mind expects lips to be. And so I see them. Mistakenly.
—
[photo source: Cephalopods: A World Guide, by Mark Norman, via Pharyngula]
