Pareidolia (/ˌpærɪˈdoʊliə,ˌpɛər-/;[1]alsoUS:/ˌpɛəraɪ-/)[2] is the tendency forperception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulousstimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type ofapophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas).
Common examples includeperceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; orlunar pareidolia like theMan in the Moon or theMoon rabbit. The concept of pareidolia may extend to includehidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing voices (mainly indistinct) or music in random noise, such as that produced by air conditioners or by fans.[3][4] Face pareidolia has also been demonstrated inrhesus macaques.[5]
The word derives from the Greek wordspará (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead [of]") and the nouneídōlon (εἴδωλον, "image, form, shape").[6]
The German wordPareidolie was used in articles byKarl Ludwig Kahlbaum—for example in his 1866 paper "Die Sinnesdelierien"[7] ("On Delusion of the Senses"). When Kahlbaum's paper was reviewed the following year (1867) inThe Journal of Mental Science, Volume 13,Pareidolie was translated into English as "pareidolia", and noted to be synonymous with the terms "...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, [and] perception of secondary images."[8]
Pareidolia correlates with age and is frequent among patients withParkinson's disease anddementia with Lewy bodies.[9]
Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadow, as faces.[10] A 2009magnetoencephalography study found that objects perceived as faces evoke an early (165ms) activation of thefusiform face area at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation. This activation is similar to a slightly faster time (130 ms) that is seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon.[11]
Afunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in 2011 similarly showed that repeated presentation of novel visual shapes that were interpreted as meaningful led to decreased fMRI responses for real objects. These results indicate that the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli depends upon processes similar to those elicited by known objects.[12]
Pareidolia was found to affect brain function and brain waves. In a 2022 study, EEG records show that responses in the frontal and occipitotemporal cortexes begin prior to when one recognizes faces and later, when they are not recognized.[13] By displaying these proactive brain waves, scientists can then have a basis for data rather than relying on self-reported sightings.[clarification needed]
These studies help to explain why people generally identify a few lines and a circle as a "face" so quickly and without hesitation.Cognitive processes are activated by the "face-like" object which alerts the observer to both the emotional state andidentity of the subject, even before the conscious mind begins to process or even receive the information. A "stick figure face", despite its simplicity, can convey mood information, and be drawn to indicate emotions such as happiness or anger. This robust and subtle capability is hypothesized to be the result ofnatural selection favoring people most able to quickly identify the mental state, for example, of threatening people, thus providing the individual an opportunity to flee or attack preemptively.[14] This ability, though highly specialized for the processing andrecognition ofhuman emotions, also functions to determine the demeanor of wildlife.[15][self-published source?]
A mimetolithic pattern is a pattern created by rocks that may come to mimic recognizable forms through the random processes of formation,weathering anderosion. A well-known example is theFace on Mars, a rock formation on Mars that resembled a human face in certain satellite photos. Most mimetoliths are much larger than the subjects they resemble, such as a cliff profile that looks like a human face.
Picture jaspers exhibit combinations of patterns, such as banding from flow or depositional patterns (from water or wind), or dendritic or color variations, resulting in what appear to be miniature scenes on a cut section, which is then used for jewelry.
Chert nodules,concretions, or pebbles may in certain cases be mistakenly identified as skeletal remains, egg fossils, or other antiquities of organic origin by amateur enthusiasts.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese researcherChonosuke Okamura self-published a series of reports titledOriginal Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory, in which he described tiny inclusions in polishedlimestone from theSilurian period (425mya) as being preservedfossil remains of tiny humans, gorillas, dogs, dragons, dinosaurs and other organisms, all of them only millimeters long, leading him to claim, "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm."[16][17] Okamura's research earned him anIg Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize) inbiodiversity in 1996.[18][19]
Some sources describe various mimetolithic features onPluto, including aheart-shaped region.[20][21][22]
Seeing shapes in cloud patterns is another example of this phenomenon. Rogowitz and Voss (1990) showed a relationship between seeing shapes in cloud patterns andfractal dimension. They varied the fractal dimension of the boundary contour from 1.2 to 1.8, and found that the lower the fractal dimension, the more likely people were to report seeing nameable shapes of animals, faces, and fantasy creatures.[23] From above, pareidolia may be perceived in satellite imagery of tropical cyclones. Notably hurricanesMatthew andMilton gained much attention for resembling a human face or skull when viewed from the side.[24]
A notable example of pareidolia occurred in 1877, when observers using telescopes to view the surface of Mars thought that they saw faint straight lines, which were then interpreted by some as canals. It was theorized that the canals were possibly created by sentient beings. This created a sensation. In the next few years better photographic techniques and stronger telescopes were developed and applied, which resulted in new images in which the faint lines disappeared, and the canal theory was debunked as an example of pareidolia.[25][26]
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Many cultures recognize pareidolic images in the disc of thefull moon, including the human face known as theMan in the Moon in manyNorthern Hemisphere cultures[27][28] and theMoon rabbit in East Asian and indigenous American cultures.[29][30] Other cultures see a walking figure carrying a wide burden on their back,[31] including inGermanic tradition,[32]Haida mythology,[33] andLatvian mythology.[34]
TheRorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state. The Rorschach is aprojective test that elicits thoughts or feelings of respondents that are "projected" onto the ambiguous inkblot images.[35] Rorschach inkblots have low-fractal-dimension boundary contours, which may elicit general shape-naming behaviors, serving as vehicles for projected meanings.[23]
Owing to the way designs areengraved and printed, occurrences of pareidolia have occasionally been reported in banknotes.
One example is the 1954Canadian LandscapeCanadian dollar banknote series, known among collectors as the "Devil's Head" variety of the initial print runs. The obverse of the notes features what appears to be an exaggerated grinning face, formed from patterns in the hair ofQueen Elizabeth II. The phenomenon generated enough attention for revised designs to be issued in 1956, which removed the effect.[36]
Renaissance authors have shown a particular interest in pareidolia. InWilliam Shakespeare's playHamlet, for example,Prince Hamlet points at the sky and "demonstrates" his supposed madness in this exchange withPolonius:[37][38]
HAMLET
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?
POLONIUS
By th'Mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.
HAMLET
Methinks it is a weasel.
POLONIUS
It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET
Or a whale.
POLONIUS
Very like a whale.
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story called "The Great Stone Face" in which a face seen in the side of a mountain (based on the real-lifeThe Old Man of the Mountain) is revered by a village.[39]
Renaissance artists often used pareidolia in paintings and drawings:Andrea Mantegna,Leonardo da Vinci,Giotto,Hans Holbein,Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and many more have shown images—often human faces—that due to pareidolia appear in objects or clouds.[40]
In his notebooks,Leonardo da Vinci wrote of pareidolia as a device for painters, writing:
If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills. You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement, and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.[41]
Salem, a 1908 painting bySydney Curnow Vosper, gained notoriety due to a rumour that it contained a hidden face, that of the devil. This led many commentators to visualize a demonic face depicted in the shawl of the main figure, despite the artist's denial that any faces had deliberately been painted into the shawl.[42][43]
Surrealist artists such asSalvador Dalí would intentionally use pareidolia in their works, often in the form of ahidden face.
Two 13th-century edifices in Turkey display architectural use of shadows of stone carvings at the entrance. Outright pictures are avoided in Islam but tessellations and calligraphic pictures were allowed, so designed "accidental" silhouettes of carved stone tessellations became a creative escape.
There have been many instances of perceptions of religious imagery and themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary phenomena. Many involve images ofJesus,[35] theVirgin Mary,[48] the wordAllah,[49] or other religious phenomena: in September 2007 inSingapore, for example, acallus on a tree resembled amonkey, leading believers to pay homage to the "Monkey god" (eitherSun Wukong orHanuman) in the monkey tree phenomenon.[50]
Publicity surrounding sightings of religious figures and other surprising images in ordinary objects has spawned a market for such items on online auctions likeeBay. One famous instance was a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.[51]
During theSeptember 11 attacks, television viewers supposedly saw the face ofSatan in clouds of smoke billowing out of theWorld Trade Center after it was struck bythe airplane.[52] Another example of face recognition pareidolia originated in thefire at Notre Dame Cathedral, when a few observers claimed to see Jesus in the flames.[53]
While attempting to validate the imprint of acrucified man on theShroud of Turin asJesus, a variety of objects have been described as being visible on thelinen. These objects include a number of plant species, a coin withRoman numerals, and multiple insect species.[54] In an experimental setting using a picture of plain linen cloth, participants who had been told that there could possibly be visible words in the cloth, collectively saw 2 religious words. Those told that the cloth was of some religious importance saw 12 religious words, and those who were also told that it was of religious importance, but also given suggestions of possible religious words, saw 37 religious words.[55] The researchers posit that the reason the Shroud has been said to have so many different symbols and objects is because it was already deemed to have the imprint of Jesus prior to the search for symbols and other imprints in the cloth, and therefore it was simply pareidolia at work.[54]
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Pareidolia can occur incomputer vision,[56] specifically inimage recognition programs, in which vague clues can spuriously detect images orfeatures. In the case of anartificial neural network, higher-level features correspond to more recognizable features, and enhancing these features brings out what the computer sees. These examples of pareidolia reflect the training set of images that the network has "seen" previously.
Striking visuals can be produced in this way, notably in theDeepDream software, which falsely detects and then exaggerates features such as eyes and faces in any image. The features can be further exaggerated by creating afeedback loop where the output is used as the input for the network. (The adjacent image was created by iterating the loop 50 times.) Additionally the output can be modified such as slightly zooming in to create an animation of the images perspective flying through the surrealistic imagery.
In 1971Konstantīns Raudive wroteBreakthrough, detailing what he believed was the discovery ofelectronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP has been described as auditory pareidolia.[35] Allegations ofbackmasking in popular music, in which a listener claims a message has been recorded backward onto a track meant to be played forward, have also been described as auditory pareidolia.[35][57] In 1995, the psychologistDiana Deutsch invented an algorithm for producing phantom words and phrases with the sounds coming from two stereo loudspeakers, one to the listener's left and the other to his right, producing a phase offset in time between the speakers. After listening for a while, phantom words and phrases suddenly emerge, and these often appear to reflect what is on the listener's mind.[58][59]
Medical educators sometimes teach medical students and resident physicians (doctors in training) to use pareidolia and patternicity to learn to recognize human anatomy on radiology imaging studies.
Examples include assessing radiographs (X-ray images) of the human vertebral spine. Patrick Foye, M.D., professor ofphysical medicine and rehabilitation atRutgers University,New Jersey Medical School, has written that pareidolia is used to teach medical trainees to assess for spinal fractures and spinal malignancies (cancers).[60] When viewing spinal radiographs, normal bony anatomic structures resemble the face of an owl. (The spinal pedicles resemble an owl's eyes and the spinous process resembles an owl's beak.) But when cancer erodes the bony spinal pedicle, the radiographic appearance changes such that now that eye of the owl seems missing or closed, which is called the "winking owl sign". Another common pattern is a "Scottie dog sign" on a spinal X-ray.[61]
In 2021, Foye again published in the medical literature on this topic, in a medical journal article called "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans".[62] Here, he introduced a novel way of visualizing thesacrum when viewing MRImagnetic resonance imaging andCT scans (computed tomography scans). He noted that in certain image slices the human sacral anatomy resembles the face of "Baby Yoda" (also calledGrogu), a fictional character from the television showThe Mandalorian. Sacral openings for exiting nerves (sacral foramina) resemble Baby Yoda's eyes, while the sacral canal resembles Baby Yoda's mouth.[63]
In January 2017, an anonymous user placed aneBay auction of aCheeto that looked like the gorillaHarambe. Bidding began atUS$11.99, but the Cheeto was eventually sold forUS$99,000.[64]
Starting from 2021, anInternet meme emerged around an online game calledAmong Us, where users presented everyday items such as dogs, statues, garbage cans, big toes, and pictures of theBoomerang Nebula that looked like the game's "crewmate" protagonists.[65][66] In May 2021, aneBay user named Tav listed aChicken McNugget shaped like a crewmate fromAmong Us foronline auction. The Chicken McNugget was sold forUS$99,997 to an anonymous buyer.[67]
Ashadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is often attributed to pareidolia. It is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in theparanormal orsupernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity.[68]
Pareidolia is also what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have seenghosts.[69]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.Legends from 8 to 14 cover different variations of this legend. (Latvian language only)
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