Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a vague or ambiguous stimulus, usually visual, so that a person detects an object, pattern or face where none is actually present. It is a specific and very common form of apophenia, the broader tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things, already live on this atlas as its own related entity. Common examples include seeing animals, faces or objects in cloud formations, in inanimate objects, or in lunar features such as the Man in the Moon, and researchers have also demonstrated a version of face pareidolia in rhesus macaques, suggesting the tendency is not unique to humans.
Facts
Core ClaimPareidolia 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. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
In Branch
Source Wikipedia: Pareidolia
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Pareidolia
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph, first sentence
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.
Etymology section
Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum introduced the German term Pareidolie in his 1866 paper "Die Sinnesdelierien" ("On Delusion of the Senses").
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
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.
In Branch: Cognitive Psychology, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Pareidolia' is filed under Category:Cognitive biases.
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