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By Staff Reporters
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Patternicity is our brain’s tendency to find patterns in random data. It’s why we see faces in clouds or think the stock market follows our horoscope. According to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, this quirk helped our ancestors survive by recognizing predator shapes in the bushes, but in modern times, it can lead us astray. Our brains love making connections, sometimes too much, seeing patterns where none exist.
So, when you’re convinced that your lucky socks influence your team’s performance, remind yourself: it’s just your brain’s patternicity at work.
Apophenia vs. Pareidolia
Now, “Apophenia is the general term for the human tendency to see patterns in meaningless data that may involve visual, auditory, or other senses,” according to Dr. Harold Hong, a psychiatrist from Raleigh, North Carolina. He points out that pareidolia is a specific form of apophenia that refers to seeing visual patterns in random or ambiguous visual stimuli, such as seeing a face in the clouds.
Apophenia and pareidolia are common occurrences, says Hong, and challenges often only present when someone becomes fixated on specific patterns or details that others perceive as random. “While both phenomena are natural human tendencies, they can become concerning if someone starts to fixate on specific patterns excessively,” he says, noting that apophenia may be prevalent in certain mental health conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Ethics, Experts Invited, Glossary Terms, iMBA, Inc., LifeStyle | Tagged: Apophenia, Apophenia vs. Pareidolia, Dan Ariely PhD, Harold Hong, paranormal, Pareidolia, patternicity, photography, poetry |
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