Below are examples of famous findings from face research.
A facial illusion
Move your mouse over or tap on the upside‑down face. The eyes and mouth have been inverted but it looks far stranger when upright.
Turning a face upside down disrupts our ability to process configuration — the relationship between facial features. Humans appear to have specialised mechanisms for upright face perception.
Reference
Thompson, P. (1980). Margaret Thatcher: a new illusion. Perception, 9, 483‑484.
Averageness
Moving down the female images, the faces become more average. Averageness refers to how similar a face is to the population mean.
Average faces are harder to recognise but are often rated as more attractive. Humans may form an internal average face, based on the faces they encounter.
References
Langlois & Roggman (1990). Attractive faces are only average. Psychological Science.
Little & Hancock (2002). Masculinity, distinctiveness and attractiveness. BJP.
Emotion
Move your mouse over the face. You should easily recognise the difference between happy and angry expressions.
Six basic emotions are widely recognised across cultures: Happy, Angry, Sad, Disgust, Surprise, and Fear.
References
Ekman & Friesen (1971). Constants across culture in emotion. JPSP.
Ekman & Friesen (1976). Pictures of Facial Affect.
Familiarity
Move your mouse over or tap on the Mona Lisa — the image flips. One is the original, the other is mirror‑reversed.
People tend to prefer familiar faces. This may contribute to beliefs that partners look alike or resemble parents.
Click here to see the real Mona Lisa.
References
Mita, Dermer & Knight (1977). Reversed facial images. JPSP.
Zajonc (1968). Mere exposure effect. JPSP.
Universal attractiveness
Move your mouse over or tap on the face. One is an average model, the other an average student.
People consistently rate the model face as more attractive. Agreement on attractiveness is high across individuals and cultures.
References
Jones & Hill (1993). Criteria of facial attractiveness. Human Nature.
Langlois et al. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? Psychological Bulletin.