People see personalities in cars
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A prehistoric part of the human psyche may account for why people tend to assign personalities to cars, say researchers writing in the December issue of the journal Human Nature.
The study, co-authored by Florida State University associate professor Dennis Slice, used a complex statistical analysis to show that many people see human facial features in the front ends of cars and that those characteristics project a personality, such as aggressive, angry or lovable. The researchers asked 40 people to view high-resolution, 3-D computer reconstructions and printed images of 38 actual car models from 2004-06, representing manufacturers from Ford to Mercedes.
One-third of the study participants associated a human or animal face with at least 90% of the cars. Headlights were perceived as eyes, the nose tended to be a grille or emblem and the additional air intake slots, the mouth. People found elongated hoods, lower car bodies and more angular headlights were more powerful. Cars that had headlights with their upper edge relatively close to the midline and an upward shift of the car’s lateral-most points were perceived as childlike or submissive.
‘In our study, people generally agreed with their ratings,’ said Slice in a news release. ‘Thus, there must be some kind of consistent message that is being perceived in car fronts.’
Slice, who performed the research while at the University of Vienna, theorizes that people see personalities in cars because, as a species, we evolved to be highly attuned to gathering information about a person just by glancing at their face. What remains to be studied, he says, is whether people adopt the personality of their car while driving.
-- Shari Roan