Apophenia
Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns, connections or significance in things that are actually random or unrelated.
Full definition of Apophenia →:: COMPARE ::
ApopheniavsPareidolia
The short answer
Apophenia is the umbrella, pareidolia is one panel of it. Reading a hidden message into a run of lottery numbers is apophenia; seeing a face in the lottery machine is pareidolia. One is about meaning of any kind; the other is a resemblance surfacing out of noise — usually an image, sometimes a voice.
Side by side
| Aspect | Apophenia | Pareidolia |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Any pattern | Vague stimuli, usually visual |
| Output | A connection | An image or a voice |
| Coined | 1958 | 1860s |
| Relationship | The umbrella | A subtype |
What each one means
Pareidolia
Pareidolia is seeing a specific meaningful thing — most often a face — in something that has none, like a plug socket, a cloud, or the front of a car.
Full definition of Pareidolia →