50 Times People Succumbed To Pareidolia And Saw What Wasn’t Really There (New Pics)

Humans tend to anthropomorphize things: we give names to our pets, plushies, andeven carsand boats. For me, a pack of colored pens once served as all the X-Men during childhood playtime. Other times, we see things that aren’t really there, like faces in rocks or shapes of dogs in the clouds.We call the phenomenon ‘pareidolia,’ and it’s an interesting way our brains trick us into anthropomorphizing inanimate objects. Have you ever thought that the front of your car looks like a face? That’spareidolia. Want to see some crazy things people spotted and thought they looked like something else? Scroll away!Bored Pandawanted to understand pareidolia better, so, we reached out to researcherMark T. Hamilton. He’s a Ph.D. student at the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and has studied why we see faces in things. He kindly agreed to share his research insights with us, so, be sure to check them out below!This post may includeaffiliate links.

We call the phenomenon ‘pareidolia,’ and it’s an interesting way our brains trick us into anthropomorphizing inanimate objects. Have you ever thought that the front of your car looks like a face? That’spareidolia. Want to see some crazy things people spotted and thought they looked like something else? Scroll away!

Bored Pandawanted to understand pareidolia better, so, we reached out to researcherMark T. Hamilton. He’s a Ph.D. student at the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and has studied why we see faces in things. He kindly agreed to share his research insights with us, so, be sure to check them out below!

This post may includeaffiliate links.

Apple with a stem resembling a human figure, illustrating a pareidolia effect.

Tree branch resembling a dancing figure, showcasing pareidolia on a wooden base.

Mushroom resembling an owl in grass, showcasing pareidolia.

If you have ever started seeing faces in clouds or were thinking that your teapot might be smiling at you, don’t worry, you’re not crazy. Pareidolia is common for a lot of us. Still, it’s interesting why our brains are seemingly wired to see faces everywhere: is it because we like to giveanthropomorphicqualities to everything?Researcher Mark Hamilton and his team completed theirresearch on pareidoliain 2024 and have some theories about why we tend to see eyes, noses, and mouths everywhere. The researchers think thatpareidoliais just our way of protecting ourselves.

Researcher Mark Hamilton and his team completed theirresearch on pareidoliain 2024 and have some theories about why we tend to see eyes, noses, and mouths everywhere. The researchers think thatpareidoliais just our way of protecting ourselves.

Icicle resembling a hand, capturing a common pareidolia phenomenon against a window backdrop.

Dog lying down with fur pattern resembling a bird shape, illustrating pareidolia.

Coffee with foam resembling a face, showcasing a classic example of pareidolia.

In a way, pareidolia is the result of our survival instinct. “Our research points to the fact that it might be because of the need to quickly parse and identify animal faces,” Hamilton told Bored Panda. “Possibly for things like avoiding predators and catching prey.“Interestingly, humans aren’t alone inseeing facesin places where there are none. “Other research that we reference in our paper shows even rhesus monkeys experience pareidolia,” Hamilton added. “Pareidolia happens very quickly in the brain, a sign that it’s a deep-rooted evolutionary artifact.”

Interestingly, humans aren’t alone inseeing facesin places where there are none. “Other research that we reference in our paper shows even rhesus monkeys experience pareidolia,” Hamilton added. “Pareidolia happens very quickly in the brain, a sign that it’s a deep-rooted evolutionary artifact.”

Tree root resembling a human foot in a forest setting, illustrating pareidolia with fallen leaves and a twig nearby.

Red plant resembling a face due to pareidolia, with green leaves and tree in the background.

Rock formation resembling a human face, illustrating pareidolia in nature.

In their research, Hamilton and his team first fed a state-of-the-art face detector images of human faces. They asked it to recognize faces in pareidolic images. The algorithm didn’t do so well, with only a 9% average precision. When the algorithm was trained on pareidolic images, on the other hand, it was way more precise and had a 36% AP.

Milk spill resembling a cartoonish sea creature on a table, showcasing pareidolia effects.

A leaf resembling a bat on a speckled surface, illustrating pareidolia.

Hand holding a red onion with face-like marks, illustrating pareidolia in a grocery store setting.

“Our research specifically showed that algorithms trained on human faces alone didn’t see nearly as much pareidolia as algorithms trained on human and animal faces,” Hamilton says. Training the algorithm on animal faces made it recognize pareidolic images even better. Hamilton believes it’s because the algorithm generalized beyond just human facial features.

Hallway tile floor creating an illusion of faces, demonstrating pareidolia effects in patterned surfaces.

Ice cream with a small shape resembling a shark, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Grill with soot pattern creating a face, a classic example of pareidolia.

When the algorithm is trained on animal faces it starts thinking about faces more abstractly. “If you think about it, animal faces have a ton of different variants and colors, which might explain why we can see pareidolic faces that look nothing like human faces,” Hamilton explains.

Tiny pink lint resembling a flamingo caught on a black fabric, illustrating pareidolia.

A moth with wing patterns resembling skulls, showcasing pareidolia against a textured gray background.

Gnarled tree bark resembling an animal’s face, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Grilled chicken with herbs, onion rings resembling a spiral illusion, and coleslaw, reflecting Pareidolia-Pictures theme.

Dramatic cloud formation resembling a dragon in the night sky, showcasing a captivating example of pareidolia.

Street at night showing trees and lamp posts, creating a pareidolia effect under dim lighting.

Another interesting fact is that there are also gender differences in who sees more pareidolia. “Women see more pareidolia than men, and pareidolic faces tend to be perceived more often as male, both in our dataset and in the broader literature,” Mark T. Hamilton tells Bored Panda.

Soup bubbles form a face, demonstrating pareidolia.

Fluffy dog’s leg resembling broccoli, illustrating pareidolia.

Close-up view of a skin mark resembling an animal shape, illustrating pareidolia in everyday objects.

The thing that surprised Hamilton and his team most during their research was that pareidolia and detecting animals are linked in modern algorithms. “That’s not often connected,” he told us. “This helps make sense of a lot of the different pareidolia observations out there. Like its observation in monkeys, its fast response time, even perhaps its skew towards male faces (which one could argue are more correlated with predator traits like strong jaws, harder noses, etc).”

A sunset resembling a cat’s ears over the horizon, showcasing pareidolia in nature.

A rock formation resembling a face in a desert setting under a clear blue sky, exemplifying pareidolia.

Chair in a waiting room, its pattern resembling a face, showcasing pareidolia with plant in the background.

Hamilton’s team also had some fun during their research. Apparently, the algorithms are quite good at finding pareidolic doppelgängers for animals. It turns out that lions can look like pancakes, some seals look eerily similar to pears, and mice resemble melons! You can see the hilarious examplesright here!

A driftwood log on a sandy beach resembling a crocodile head, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Close-up of dried plant pods in a field resembling tiny skulls, showcasing pareidolia in nature.

Pareidolia-Pictures: A face-like image formed by sink drains and an orange cloth resembling a nose.

The team also wrote down some equations that roughly predict when and where people might see pareidolia. Then, they verified them with human psychophysics studies. “The equation and studies show that there’s a “goldilocks” zone of “complexity” in a scene where faces are more likely to pop out,” Hamilton explains. You can see a graphic or what’s too much pareidolia and what’s too littlehere.”

Rock formations resembling animals in a forest setting, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Wood grain resembling a bear’s face, showcasing pareidolia in a wooden surface.

Dust patterns on a car window resembling animal shapes, showcasing pareidolia.

Wooden fence with knots resembling facial features, illustrating pareidolia under a blue sky.

Water bottle cap resembling a face, showcasing pareidolia phenomena.

Hoodie hanging by a corner, creating a pareidolia effect resembling a person.

Weathered tree stumps resembling animal shapes in a forest landscape, demonstrating pareidolia.

A shadow on a pole creates a dinosaur shape, showcasing pareidolia pictures in an urban setting with a bicycle nearby.

A sliced watermelon showing pareidolia, resembling a mouth or face, held by a person over a table.

A rock formation resembling a giant fish head, surrounded by greenery. Pareidolia-Pictures example in nature.

Leafy salad features pareidolia with a face-like almond among the greens.

Unusual tomato resembling a rabbit due to pareidolia, placed on a wooden table.

A lamp resembling a face on a wooden floor, showcasing pareidolia.

Dog with paw resembling a face, a classic example of pareidolia.

Hand holding a rock with a natural pattern resembling a face, demonstrating pareidolia.

Close-up of tree bark resembling a bird, showcasing pareidolia.

A mouse’s back seen from above, illustrating pareidolia with a face-like pattern.

A hand holding an eggplant with facial features resembling a nose and mouth, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Pareidolia-Pictures: Bread with a burn pattern resembling an eye on a woven basket background.

Snow on wood resembling a face, capturing a striking example of pareidolia-pictures.

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Car headlights in the dark create a pareidolia effect, resembling a face with glowing eyes.

House with a roof resembling a face, illustrating Pareidolia-Pictures phenomenon.

Cloud formations resembling figures above a city skyline at sunset, showcasing pareidolia in dramatic skies.

Metal bracket with a face-like appearance wrapped in plastic, illustrating pareidolia-pictures in a store setting.

A shovel shows a pareidolia picture resembling a face, with its dark pattern on the metal surface.

Melted candle wax forming a face illusion, showcasing pareidolia effects.

Cactus resembling two people embracing amidst desert scenery, showcasing pareidolia effect.

Close-up of a hand holding an eggplant slice with a butterfly shape, illustrating pareidolia.

Pareidolia in beer foam, resembling a face on a glass of amber ale on a wooden table.

Golden-brown fried object resembling a finger, showcasing pareidolia on a paper towel next to a human thumb.

Banana with dark spots resembling a face, illustrating pareidolia on a patterned background.

A dried mushroom resembling a swan, demonstrating pareidolia.

Yellow trash bin resembling a surprised face, demonstrating pareidolia near a staircase and greenery.