thought Pareidolia was something ordinary - we find faces in everything, especially the example below of the moon's surface. That's a famous example.
"A psychological phenomenon in which the mind perceives a specific image or pattern where it does not actually exist, such as seeing a face in the clouds. Pareidolia can be used to explain a host of otherwise unexplained sightings.
E.g. Alex was sure he saw a human face on the moon’s surface, but it was more likely to be pareidolia."
One definition says "think of the Rorschacht inkblot test". It is now considered part of normal human experience rather than a mental disorder.
The EarthSky website asks this question: Did pareidolia lead to the creation of the constellations? Their answer:
"To a certain extent, the definition of pareidolia can explain why the ancients connected the dots and came up with the patterns we know as constellations. It does not take a great deal of imagination to see a lion in Leo, a scorpion in Scorpius, or a mighty hunter in Orion. To be honest, many other constellations, such as Cancer the Crab or Capricornus the Sea Goat, stretch the pattern recognition idea a bit far, making the naming process more one of contrivance than of pareidolia."
Here are examples of Pareidolia from an article. The study found that faces are more often thought to be male rather than female. The chart shows the supposed age of the faces as well.
The BBC covered the topic of finding faces in the most unexpected places: "It's not often that you look at your meal to find it staring back at you. But when Diane Duyser picked up her cheese toastie, she was in for a shock. “I went to take a bite out of it, and then I saw this lady looking back at me,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “It scared me at first.” As word got around, it soon began to spark more attention, and eventually a casino paid Duyser $28,000 to exhibit the toasted sandwich. For many, the woman’s soft, full features and serene expression recalls famous depictions of the Virgin Mary." The 2014 BBC article is here. I don't know if the sandwich is still preserved.
I find human depictions in various places. Today's are relics of the water - crackled buoys and prove the BBC statement that we are primed to see faces in every corner of the visual world.
