Have you ever looked at the moon and noticed a face? Or even thought the front of a car looks like it’s smiling at you? Well that’s the science of Pareidolia (par-i-DOH-lee-a)
Pareidolia explains why people see faces within random patterns.
Source: Why you’re seeing a face in this purse
According to vox, Pareidolia is Greek from beyond the image. It is caused by the brain trying to make sense of pattern. Even Leonardo Da Vinci made reference to this phenomenon in his notes.
“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” – Da Vinci
Sometimes you don’t see them unless someone else points it out to you and then, as if by magic, you are hit by the revelation (or some just don’t s get it)!
Pareidolia however is not exclusively about seeing faces. It’s also when we see other patterns and shapes which form letters or other things we are visually familiar with.
Here are a few of our favourite examples.Â
Find out more:
- Lving Science – http://www.livescience.com/25448-pareidolia.html
- Google – http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Pareidolia
- Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia