TheGrandNagus , 4 hours ago (edited 2 hours ago)

I would say that’s YouTube in general, but even that’s not true. Practically all media frequently focuses on faces.

YouTube thumbnails, social media, the rise of selfies, video calling, portraits (always been one of the most common forms of art), film posters (disproportionately feature the faces of their characters), etc.

Humans love seeing faces. We are drawn to faces, it’s linked to us being an intelligent social species with complex social and familial structures. It’s ingrained in us to place great attention and recognition on faces, and to glean information from them.

In fact, our brains are so obsessed with facial recognition, that we often see faces where none exist (pareidolia). That’s how strong this effect is.

I get that people on Lemmy/Reddit act like seeing a face in the thumbnail is the worst thing ever, but creators do it because people want to see faces. All the data points to people being more engaged when we see faces.

And honestly, compared to other forms of trying to get people interested, such as using misleading or untrue titles, ragebait, failing to mention the video is sponsored in a way that undermines the integrity of the video, etc., including a face in a thumbnail is just about the least troublesome avenue. A face in a thumbnail is completely and utterly harmless.