Pareidolia
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Pareidolia (from Greek para- amiss, faulty, wrong + eidolon, diminutive of eidos appearance, form) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (usually an image) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon, and hearing messages on records played in reverse.
Human beings are apparently "hard-wired" to identify the human face. One possible explanation for this is that unresponsive infants tended to be ignored or abandoned, as Carl Sagan speculated in The Demon-Haunted World.
Skeptics assert that sightings of religious or iconic figures in everyday objects, such as Marian apparitions, are examples of pareidolia, as are electronic voice phenomena. The Face on Mars is a phenomenon that succeeded the Martian canals, both eventually attributed to pareidolia, when the "seen" images disappeared in better and more numerous images. So many Canadians thought they saw the face of the Devil in the Queen's hair on a dollar bill in the 1954 series, adapted from a photograph (illustration, right), that the bills were withdrawn from circulation. Image:Canadiandollar devilshead.gif
A similar phenomenon is the clustering illusion.
The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia attempting to gain insight into a person's mental state. While this test is still widely employed, its scientific basis is disputed, and no studies have shown empirical confirmation of success.
“the term pareidolia, at present in disuse, is the one that better appoints the perceptive alterations in which, from a real field of perception scarcely structured, the individual believes to perceive somewhat different, mixing him perceived with him fantasized. In this sense it is some kind of illusion or deceitful perception that differentiates itself clearly from hallucinations, seudoalucinaciones, alucinosis or metamorfopcias”. Martin et al, pag. 634. http://www.arsxxi.com/pfw_files/cma/ArticulosR/Neurologia/2002/10/109100206330642.pdf
The apparently sacred character of some archaeological places could be explained in part, with: a) The psychological phenomenon known as hierofanía, generally associated to the religious experiences. b) The psychological phenomenon - perceptive, not necessarily pathological, called Pareidolia.
See also
- Man in the Moon
- Face on Mars
- Old Man of the Mountain
- Apophenia
- Pattern recognition
- Simulacrum
- The 23 enigma
External links
- Video and photographic demonstrations of pareidolia
- The Skeptics Dictionary's definition for 'pareidolia'
- Examples of pareidolia (Spanish)
- Jesus in South American sand dunes (Google Maps)
- A dragon on a Mexican river (Google Maps)
- Lenin in my shower curtain
- Series of images from the news
- Merchandising God: The Pope Tart - Karen Stollznow (pdf)de:Pareidolie