People Love Angry-Faced Cars

People Love Angry-Faced Cars: "If a Toyota Prius just looks too friendly for your tastes, you’re not alone. People readily see faces and traits in cars, and a new study suggests that they prefer cars to appear dominant, masculine and angry.

The finding rests on the propensity we have to actually see faces or human characteristics in everything from cars to clouds, a phenomenon called pareidolia. But now researchers hope to better understand what goes on in the brain when people see faces in objects versus humans faces, as well as help automakers design more appealing cars.

'When investing in a new passenger car, you're talking about billions,' said Truls Thorstensen, head of EFS Consulting Vienna. 'If you get the wrong styling, you get problems.'"