Pareidolia: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 14:47, 28 November 2024
Apophenia is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data. Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia involving the perception of images or sounds in random stimuli.
A common example is the perception of a face within an inanimate object—the headlights and grill of an automobile may appear to be "grinning". People around the world see the "Man in the Moon".[8] People sometimes see the face of a religious figure in a piece of toast or in the grain of a piece of wood. There is strong evidence that psychedelic drugs tend to induce or enhance pareidolia.[citation needed]
Pareidolia usually occurs as a result of the fusiform face area—which is the part of the human brain responsible for seeing faces—mistakenly interpreting an object, shape or configuration with some kind of perceived "face-like" features as being a face.
Example
The above picture is of Mt. Baker in northwestern Washington state. It was circulated with the following email:
- Bro. Branham on the Mountain
- Did you see Bro. Branham's face in the mountain yesterday?? Sis. ________ showed it to me on her camera, and I had to take a picture. It was so clear even the kids could see it.
This is a clear example of apophenia. Can you also see the bird? Is that an eagle? No... wait... it looks like a goose. Is it William Branham or just a pattern that looks like a face? Or is it whatever you think it is?
Footnotes