Pareidolia is the tendency of the brain to perceive meaningful images or patterns in random or ambiguous information.
Common examples: seeing a face in the front of a car, an electrical outlet, a cloud, or a rock formation.
More controversial:
Perhaps our theories for explaining the world grow out of the same general tendency: the mind's compulsion to find patterns, causes, and meaning in events that may contain considerably less of all three than we imagine.
Psychologists have a broader word for this: apophenia.
An example of an apophenia-inspired explanation?
Well, perhaps this theory that apophenia is the mysterious catalyst behind our endless production of theories explaining the random happenings all around us.
Of course, believing that apophenia explains our tendency to invent explanations may itself be apophenia, which suggests that this theory has even more explanatory power than I ever thought at the start of this sentence. Hmm. This theory is developing nicely.
Common examples: seeing a face in the front of a car, an electrical outlet, a cloud, or a rock formation.
More controversial:
Perhaps our theories for explaining the world grow out of the same general tendency: the mind's compulsion to find patterns, causes, and meaning in events that may contain considerably less of all three than we imagine.
Psychologists have a broader word for this: apophenia.
An example of an apophenia-inspired explanation?
Well, perhaps this theory that apophenia is the mysterious catalyst behind our endless production of theories explaining the random happenings all around us.
Of course, believing that apophenia explains our tendency to invent explanations may itself be apophenia, which suggests that this theory has even more explanatory power than I ever thought at the start of this sentence. Hmm. This theory is developing nicely.
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