Apophenia
Apophenia is when people see a connection or a meaningful pattern between unrelated things.[1] People who suffer from schizophrenia often see patterns where there are none.[2]
Klaus Conrad first used the term in 1958, when he talked about a patient in the beginning stages of schizophrenia.[3][4] Conrad used the term to describe a cognitive bias towards finding patterns in unrelated things.[4]
Pareidolia is a type of apophenia that involves seeing human faces in random things.[5]
Apophenia Media
- Martian face viking cropped.jpg
Cropped version of the original batch-processed image (#035A72) of the "Face on Mars"
Related pages
References
- ↑ "Definition of APOPHENIA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers at line 630: attempt to index field 'known_free_doi_registrants_t' (a nil value).
- ↑ "When the human tendency to detect patterns goes too far". psyche.co. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Conrad, Klaus (1958). Die beginnende Schizophrenie: Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns (Unveränd. Neuausg., 4. Aufl ed.). Bonn: Edition Das Narrenschiff im Psychiatrie-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88414-525-8.
- ↑ Ungvarsky, Janine (2023). "Pareidolia". EBSCO. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
