What is pareidolia?

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to perceive a specific image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. For example, someone might see a face in a cloud formation or in an inanimate object.

Here are some examples of pareidolia:

• The "Face on Mars", a satellite photograph of a mesa in the Cydonia region of Mars 
• The Man in the Moon and the Moon rabbit 
• The face of Jesus in a flour tortilla, grilled cheese sandwich, or pierogi 
• The face of Satan in the clouds of smoke billowing out of the World Trade Centre after the September 11 attacks 
• The samurai crab, a Japanese crab with a shell that resembles a human face 
• The teapot that people thought looked like Adolf Hitler 
• The human brain is well-suited to recognizing faces, which may explain why people are so good at picking out meaningful shapes in random patterns.