The woman with the hijab looks like everyone? true or false?

Hijab is a way for women to worship and at the same time show their unique identity. Uniquely, in the midst of the diversity of colors and trendy hijab models, not a few people around who sometimes like to find it difficult to distinguish between one hijab woman and another. Do you feel that way too? Maybe you have called a friend who is wearing a hijab when you are in a public place, uh, apparently not someone you know. Relax, you are not alone.

Why yes, most women wearing hijab faces can look similar, even though they are not siblings - especially twins?

Is it true that a woman wearing a hijab is more difficult to recognize when she is with hijabers other?

A study published by PLoS One conducted 3 separate experiments on public perceptions of the appearance of hijab women. Study participants were shown three kinds of photo sets: (1) woman A with normal appearance, not wearing a hijab, (2) woman B who was not wearing a hijab, and (3) women A and B who both wore a hijab. All these photo sets are shown to participants separately and in turn.

(Source: Journal PLoS One)

The first test featured photos of women A and B who were both without the hijab. At this stage, they can quickly tell which woman A and B are based on their respective facial characteristics. Another time, participants were shown photos of women A and B wearing a hijab. Participants showed slower recognition reflexes than during the first test.

For the final test, the research team presented all versions of the photos of these two women - both had hair, both were veiled, and one was wearing a hijab and the other did not. Participants were asked to identify which woman A and B were, and to rate how similar the two women were to each other. As a result, this group of participants consisting of various ethnicities had difficulty distinguishing between women A and B based on the facial features displayed. After undergoing this series of tests, they thought the two women looked alike and were difficult to identify.

It all has to do with how your brain recognizes faces and builds your perception of others. How you interact with other people is more or less influenced by the work of the brain to recognize and distinguish one face from the thousands of faces you encounter throughout your life. When trying to recognize someone, the brain will work like a scanner which scans the person's face and turns every aspect of the face into a code.

The work of the brain in building facial perceptions

The way you recognize another person's face may begin in a certain order: eyes, mouth, nose. The size and placement of the person's eyes, for example, will determine how you see the rest of their face. The process of random facial feature recognition causes the brain to focus on a single feature rather than adjusting the perception of the rest of the face.

This facial recognition system by the brain is an effective way for you to be able to distinguish one face from another. It is simple like this: once the name "Sari" comes out, for example, you can immediately tell which Sari is your high school friend and which Sari is your neighbor, because the high school friend has a snub nose while your neighbor has slanted eyes. The reason is, your high school friend Sari's snub nose is the most distinctive facial feature you will recognize and remember the first time. Likewise with Sari's slanted eyes, your neighbor's house.

Well, apart from the internal characteristics of the face (eyes, nose, mouth), the researchers found that hair as an external feature also plays an important role in determining whether a person can be recognized easily. They found that once a person's facial appearance changed, with the hijab for example, the brain would scan the internal and external features of the face as a whole picture rather than separate components.

This: imagine that your two "Sari" friends are now both wearing a hijab. Your brain, which was able to distinguish these two saris based on their most distinctive facial features, now has a different perception of their new appearance. Instead of focusing facial recognition on just one focal point, the brain scans the entire appearance of the two hijab saris.

That is why most people sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between one hijab woman and another, even though the colors and styles of their hijab are different. Especially when in a public place, where the brain doesn't have time to really scan and distinguish the facial characteristics of each woman wearing a hijab, which you may not even know before.

What does this mean? Is it true that all hijab women will look alike to "outsiders"? Not necessarily the case, you know!

Perceptions of facial recognition can differ from one person to another

As explained above, the brain recognizes faces in a certain order. For example, you will try to memorize someone's face starting from the eyes, nose, then mouth. But other people may recognize a face in different ways, for example, starting from the nose, mouth, eyes.

The two brains of different body owners get the same signal, but how each processes these random signals can be different. It could be that you recognize the A from the shape of his eyes first, while your side friend can better recognize the A from the shape of his mouth.

This shows that the perception of your face in one person's eyes is not necessarily the same as how other people perceive your face. So if you think all women wearing hijab look alike, not necessarily other people will think the same. This is because generally the headscarf or hijab is not the main factor in how the brain assesses facial similarities, but rather from the characteristics of the face itself.