Update: After the project ended, right before class started, I changed my profile pic to the image below. After 9 1/2 hours, the pic has 25 likes and 2 comments. Considering the significant increase in response and what was discussed in class, I'm starting to believe the response correlates to the picture being recognizable as me. When you're scrolling and see you an image on someone's timeline, you're likely to believe it's just something they liked or posted themselves. However, people recognize faces, and they seem to be more likely to response to a change in profile pic if they actually recognize that the pic was changed.