If you’re not familiar with the term “pareidolia,” it is defined as: a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus (an image or a sound) by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. Common examples are when you associate certain shapes in the clouds, or the rabbit in the moon. Professor Kang Lee. from the University of Toronto who carried out a study on facial pareidolia, explains: ‘Most people think you have to be mentally abnormal to see these types of images, so individuals reporting this phenomenon are often ridiculed. ‘But our findings suggest it’s common for people to see non-existent features because human brains are uniquely wired to recognise faces, so that even when there’s only a slight suggestion of facial features the brain automatically interprets it as a face.’
