Many people have experienced pareidolia without realizing it. Pareidolia is the phenomenon where the brain sees or hears something of significance in a random picture or pattern. A common example is seeing faces in common objects. So if you notice an animal-shaped cloud or religious figures on toast, you are experiencing pareidolia, and scientists are trying to understand how this is possible.
There are many theories attempting to explain this phenomenon, but the main idea is that the brain tends to assign meaning whenever it can. It looks for patterns to make sense of what it is seeing. Moreover, part of the temporal lobe of the cortex processes facial recognition, an important skill throughout history that distinguishes between friends and potentially dangerous strangers.
Confirmation bias is another aspect of pareidolia. If someone is looking for clouds shaped like objects, it’s more likely they’ll find them. Plus, if someone is making toast, they may not see the face of a famous religious figure until someone else points it out to them.
Motion pareidolia, also known as kinetic pareidolia, occurs when people see patterns or images in visual stimuli, perceiving movement when there is none. This happens because the brain tries to fill the gaps in your vision. It’s more common to experience this phenomenon when you are sleep-deprived or in a dark area.
Kang Lee, a professor of applied psychology and human development at the University of Toronto, has studied how humans of all ages process faces. He found that the brain usually takes in information before we “see” it, but it often seeks face imagery. Assigning emotion is another intriguing aspect of pareidolia. We automatically assign emotions and personalities to inanimate objects, just as we do with emoticons.
The man in the moon is one of the most famous examples of pareidolia. Many cultures have legends about the celestial object, but anyone could look up at night and see a face on a full moon. Its surface is full of craters and maria, making it easy for our minds to perceive a face.
In the 90s, a woman named Diane Duyser saw the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese she had made. The grilled cheese became famous and sold for $28,000 on eBay in 2004. Cases of pareidolia involving religious figures like Jesus are common, with sightings on various objects like toast, pancakes, and clouds.
According to Kang Lee, inducing this phenomenon is easy. In one study, participants were able to see faces in static about 34% of the time. Test your creativity by looking for faces around you – you might be surprised at what you find.
