We use essential cookies to run this site and, with your permission, privacy-friendly analytics to understand how it is used. Analytics stay switched off until you accept. Read our Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy.
Perceiving meaningful patterns, like faces, in random stimuli. Pattern recognition gone wild.
Generally harmless but can contribute to superstitious thinking and conspiracy theories when people see patterns in random data.
This tendency helped our ancestors survive by quickly identifying faces and potential threats, but now makes us see faces everywhere.
"The only thing more predictable than human irrationality is humans' surprise at being irrational."