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A large meta-analysis found that judgments of facial trustworthiness have only modest accuracy, and the researchers concluded that this level of accuracy is unlikely to be practically useful.
Another study found that people were unable to reliably determine the actual trustworthiness of strangers when facial appearance was the only information available.
In other words, seeing five faces instead of three does not establish that someone is more trusting, more suspicious, more loyal or more observant.
Why do people see different numbers?
Several factors can influence what you notice first.
Attention plays an important role. Once you have been told that faces are hidden in the picture, your brain starts searching for them.
Visual experience also matters. People differ in how readily they recognize patterns in complicated images.
And once you discover one face, it can become easier to find others. Your brain has essentially learned what it is looking for.
Research on facial perception also shows that people make rapid social judgments from faces, often using both facial structure and emotional expression.
So what can this picture tell you?
It can tell you something interesting about visual perception, but it cannot diagnose your personality.
If you see only a couple of faces, you aren’t necessarily less trusting.
If you see many faces, you aren’t automatically more perceptive or more trusting.
The real fun is simply seeing how many hidden faces your brain can discover.