Pareidolia: Why we see faces in hills, the Moon and toasties

[dipsydoodle]

People have long seen faces in the Moon, in oddly-shaped vegetables and even burnt toast, but a Berlin-based group is scouring the planet via satellite imagery for human-like features. What's behind our desire to see faces in our surroundings, asks Lauren Everitt.

Most people have never heard of pareidolia. But nearly everyone has experienced it.

Anyone who has looked at the Moon and spotted two eyes, a nose and a mouth has felt the pull of pareidolia.

It's "the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist", according to the World English Dictionary. It's picking a face out of a knotted tree trunk or finding zoo animals in the clouds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22686500

[pkdu]

1. Shame Brad Pitt hasn't got it! Nt

[awoke_in_2003]

2. I was about to say the same...

since I just learned he might have face blindness

[cprise]

3. Our subconscious

...is constantly working to find human (and to a lesser extent, animal) presence or intent in all the stimulus we receive. We are intensely social beings, and social explanations for things carry greater weight than natural or change explanations.

That is why you're more likely to see faces, people and animals than other shapes when you look at random patterns like clouds. And if you're tired or highly stressed, random noise like wind or a stream will cause your brain to "hear" voices more than any other type of sound.