Thread:Dolphin Knight/@comment-30068215-20151024113115/@comment-26689808-20151025153509

I think I understand how we tend to assign someone to a gender merely by looking at a profile picture.

Since text isn't an effective way of discerning gender, the easy alternative to visualise a person is by using their profile picture.

Since we have no other way of visualising a person, our brain almost tricks us into believing that we're talking to the character portrayed by that profile picture. For example when I'm talking to Arima no megane, it almost feels like I'm talking to Arima himself even though I know that's not the case.

It's similar to how we try to identify a person wearing a mask. Since we're unable to identify a face, we end up visualising the mask they wear AS that face (What a fitting reference for Tokyo Ghoul).