"I feel THUUUUPER!"
Posted on 06/29/2009 12:34:01 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
No one needs to tell Disney, which brought the likes of Herbie the Love Bug and Lightning McQueen to the big screen, that cars have personality.
Now a study co-authored by a Florida State University researcher has confirmed through a complex statistical analysis that many people see human facial features in the front end of automobiles and ascribe various personality traits to cars — a modern experience driven by our prehistoric psyches. Researchers, product designers and, of course, filmmakers have long toyed with the idea that cars have faces, but this study is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically. The study will be published in the December issue of the journal Human Nature.
"The study confirmed with some rigor what many people have already felt — that cars seem to have consistent personality traits associated with them, and that this is similar to the way people perceive facial expressions," said Dennis Slice, an associate professor in Florida State's Department of Scientific Computing. "The most unique aspect of the study was that we were able to quantitatively link the perception of cars to aspects of their physical structure in a way that allows us to generate a car that would project, say, aggression, anger or masculinity or the opposite traits."
As a guest professor at the University of Vienna, Slice collaborated with doctoral student Sonja Windhager, the study's lead author, and several colleagues to explore the link between perception and the geometry of a car front and its parts. The researchers asked 40 people to view high-resolution, 3-D computer reconstructions and printed images of 38 actual 2004-06 car models, representing 26 manufacturers from Ford to Mercedes.
One-third (32.5 percent) of those participating in the experiment associated a human or an animal face with at least 90 percent of the cars. Generally, the headlights were marked as eyes; the nose tended to be the grill or emblem; the additional air intake slots, the mouth. Each participant in the experiment also was asked to rate each model on 19 traits, including dominance, maturity, gender and friendliness, and if they liked the car.
"In our study, people generally agreed in their ratings,'' Slice said, noting that 96 percent agreed on whether a car was dominant or submissive. "Thus, there must be some kind of consistent message that is being perceived in car fronts."
For example, cars scoring high in the so-called power traits had horizontally elongated hoods, pronounced lower car bodies relative to the windshields and more angular headlights that seemed to suggest a frown. Conversely, cars on the other end of the power scale — that is, those perceived as childlike, submissive, female and friendly — had headlights with their upper edge relatively close to the midline and had an upward shift of the car's lateral-most points. ("In this way, the car gives us a big smile," Slice said.)
In a finding that suggests perhaps there is a hidden road warrior in all of us, study participants liked power vehicles best — the most mature, masculine, arrogant and angry-looking ones. Although people do not necessarily buy the kind of car they say they like, Slice said the finding spurs some interesting questions for future studies about pedestrian and driver behavior. For example, do people extend the perception of the car to the person behind the wheel? And does that affect how drivers interact with other cars on the road?
In addition, the study provides a check into the rearview mirror of our prehistoric psyches, Slice said. The researchers theorized that, through biological evolution, our brains have been designed to infer a great deal of information about another person — age, sex, attitudes, personality traits and emotions — from just a glance at their face. The ability to "read" faces in order to identify people, detect possible kin relationships and assess potential danger has been so important to human development that people have adapted a hypersensitivity to detecting facial features even if they are presented in rather abstract ways. As a result, we are tempted to see faces everywhere, even in clouds, stones and, yes, cars.
"The fact that we can so easily see faces in inanimate objects may tell us something about the evolutionary environment in which this capacity arose," Slice said. "Seeing too many faces, even in mountains or toast, has little or no penalty, but missing or misinterpreting the face of a predator or attacker could be fatal."
Mine’s an ugly old bit$h. She’s not much to look at, but get you there without having to empty out the wallet.
"I feel THUUUUPER!"
"Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"
The facial features of this car conveys an effeminate nature, a willingness to be pushed around, a tendancy to be referred to in such terms as "wimp" and "pussy", and to speak in a high-pitched voice - often with a slight lisp.
Can’t psych and anthro students do this kind of research for free?
this is pretty much common sense in terms of what our brains tend to project on car front ends. for the most part headlights have locations that are similar to eyes, so the rest is probably normal anthropomorphic extrapolation. Once in a while, a car in the rear-view mirror causes such a response in my brain.
I cannot recall models now, but there are some vehicles from teh 40s/50’s with just beautiful bizarre/complex front grillwork that has always struck me as just bizarre.
I am doing the wrong thing for a living.
I’m working WAAAAAYYYYY too hard.
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
What's really pathetic is that I found out about this in the ACM Tech News. That's supposed to be newsletter for advances in computer science, fercryinoutloud.
The facial features of this car conveys an effeminate nature, a willingness to be pushed around, a tendancy to be referred to in such terms as "wimp" and "pussy", and to speak in a high-pitched voice - often with a slight lisp.
Ever hear the horn on a car like this? 3 and 4 cylindar cars are known for it...
Yeah, me too.
If she were half the bi*ch as Christine, you would not dare post that comment on a website that she might happen to see.
I think it would be cool to have satan’s picture on the tread of the tires. Cool photo.
I had a 10-year old kid look at the front of my truck 2002 Chevy Avalanche with a dark bug deflector on the front hood. He looked at it for a bit, came over to me and said “Mister - you have a very angry looking truck”.
I had to go over and look - the kid was right! The front is designed with the Chevy “bowtie” effect going on for the whole front end, so the lights are angled slightly down and in, and with a “unibrow” bug shield gives the expression of a scowl.
I am in the process of a a $1 million research grant on the characteristics and categories of cloud formations. Most cloud formations exhibit “bunny shapes”, with “poodle shapes” coming in a distant second, but research is ongoing.
As an applied meteorologist, I would like to offer my services. I have spent the better part of 27 years in the USN looking at clouds.
“Still I watch the sky, still I wonder why.”
Lenee Lovich
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