Friend or foe? How the unconscious mind picks out faces in a crowd

Imagine you’re walking down a busy street like Times Square in New York. There are tons of people around. As you make your way through the crowd, your brain notices several faces but ignores the rest. Why is that? What are the processes that determine which faces our brain ‘chooses’ to see and those it allows to fade into the background? Researchers observed that the facial dimensions that were most quickly registered by participants were ones that indicated power and dominance.