Apophenia
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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
Cropped version of the original batch-processed image (#035A72) of the "Face on Mars"
Related pages
References
- ↑ Definition of APOPHENIA (in en). www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
- ↑ Reinke, Michael. Behavioral Apophenia and Dimensions of Psychoticism in Adolescents with and without Mood Disorders (in en). Psychopathology 56 (6) (2023). p. 473–477. doi:10.1159/000529796.
- ↑ When the human tendency to detect patterns goes too far (in en). psyche.co. Retrieved 2025-09-20.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Conrad, Klaus. Die beginnende Schizophrenie: Versuch einer Gestaltanalyse des Wahns (1958). Bonn: Edition Das Narrenschiff im Psychiatrie-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88414-525-8.
- ↑ Ungvarsky, Janine. Pareidolia (in en). EBSCO (2023). Retrieved 2025-09-20.
