In 1921, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach created a set of inkblots. He asked patients what they saw in them, hoping it would reveal their hidden thoughts and emotions. The test later became famous worldwide, but in a way, we do something very similar every day—spotting clouds that look like bunnies or vegetables that resemble people’s faces. The phenomenon is called pareidolia, and there’s an entire subreddit dedicated to these random patterns found where they don’t belong. Continue scrolling and see if you can identify them too!
#1 Lady In White Waterfall
#2 I See A Stoned Bear Waving
Interestingly, pareidolia might explain the many supposedly paranormal and mystical phenomena, including UFO and Bigfoot sightings and other visions. Neuroscientists Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik say that mental disease can aggravate pareidolia, as can fatigue and sleepiness.
“After a recent surgery, one of us (Martinez-Conde) noticed faces everywhere, in places as unlikely as the ultrasound images of her left arm during an examination of potential postsurgical blood clots,” they wrote in Scientific American. “She realized at once that the ubiquitous faces were the product of lack of sleep and the high titer of pain medication in her bloodstream, so she was more fascinated than concerned.”
Martinez-Conde’s doctor agreed but made a note in her file for a different drug regimen in the future—just in case. Luckily, the hospital room’s walls were bare, and there was no yellow wallpaper in sight.
#3 Watermelon Dog 🍉🐶
#4 Depressed Little Pepper On Twitter
#5 My Favorite Picture Of President At His Inauguration Today
Martinez-Conde and Macknik said that our brain is wired to find meaning. “Our aptitude to identify structure and order around us, combined with our superior talent for face detection, can lead to spectacular cases of pareidolia, with significant effects in society and in culture,” they explained.
A good example comes from 1976. As NASA’s Viking 1 orbited Mars, looking for possible landing sites for its sister ship, Viking 2, it spotted the likeness of a mile-wide human face staring back from the Red Planet’s Cydonia region.
Experts believed that the Martian “sphinx” was one of numerous mesas around Cydonia and that unusual shadows made it look like a humongous head. Conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, favored the alternative explanation of a government cover-up and criticized NASA’s unsuccessful attempts to hide the remnants of an ancient Martian civilization.
#6 This Can Of Paint Looks Like A Cat
#7 Tomato From Grandparents Garden. He’s Very Happy To Have Grown
#8 The Way These Pots Reflect The Burners
#9 Resting Birch Face
Two decades later, NASA decided to obtain high-resolution images of Cydonia. According to then chief scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, Jim Garvin, they felt it was important to the taxpayers.
In April 1998, the Mars Orbiter Camera team snapped a picture 10 times sharper than the original Viking photos, revealing the mystifying Face on Mars to be… a mesa.
#10 This Potato
#11 Frog Riding A Motorcycle
#12 Happy Water Buffalo At The Dentist
#13 The Best Thing I Have Ever Found On Facebook
Notable examples of pareidolia can be found in the art world as well. “The brain’s capacity to establish false links among things that are not actually connected is essential to the ‘paranoiac-critical method’ artistic technique invented by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí,” Martinez-Conde and Macknik added.
(Paranoia and pareidolia even have the same etymology, from the Greek para- for “instead of” and -oid, -oeides or -eidos for “form.”)
“In Dalí’s Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire, several features in Voltaire’s face are formed by the bodies of people in the scene.”
#14 The Garage Door Is Staring At Me
#15 Carrot ‘Bout To Drop The Healthiest Verse Of All Time
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#16 Secret Deer Council Watching You From The Fence
#17 These Water Stains On My Car Look Like Gorillas
In general, humans are likelier to see male, rather than female faces, in inanimate objects, a 2022 study in the journalPNASdiscovered. And our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, do see some face-like features in objects, butnot nearly as well as we do. This highlights just how important such social information is to us as compared with other animals.
#18 Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing?
#19 Drift Sloth Wants To Be Painted Like One Of Your French Girls
#20 The “Duck” In Avenida Place Hotel
#21 When Your Belly Is Happy To See Beer
#22 The Two Faces Of Humidity
#23 This Lil Squirt Of Lotion Looks Like A Tiny Cat
#24 You Think Im Crazy?
#25 Let Her In
#26 The Pepper My Mom Grew Looks Like It’ll Steal Christmas
#27 Upgraded Cameras Have A Whole New Vibe
#28 8)
#29 Joyful Onion Lady
#30 Two In One
#31 Show Me What You Got
#32 My Brother: You Can’t Post This, It Won’t Even Get 10 Upvotes. Me:
#33 Grandma Caterpillar Putting On Lipstick
#34 Muppet Hanging On My Hook??
#35 Grumpy Purse Strap
#36 Pulled The Door Handle Off And He Was As Shocked As I Was
#37 Butter When I Opened It!
#38 Reincarnation
#39 👌
#40 Lil’ Ducky In The Soup
#41 This Robot Holding On While Sinking Into Quicksand
#42 Wow, They’re Identical
#43 Fuel Cap Casts The Shadow Of Batman
#44 Suspicious Vampire
#45 Even My Coffee Cup Didn’t Want To Get Up This Morning
#46 This Almond In My Salad Looks Very Unimpressed
#47 Woman Dancing In The Shadows
#48 F R E E H I M
#49 10/10 Cosplay
#50 Little Frightened Guys
#51 I Spilled Some Milk And The Puddle Looks Like A Derpy Ghost!
#52 Found This While Scrolling Through Facebook
#53 Drinking Tiger Looks Like Giant Tiger Face
#54 This Popcorn Looks Lika A Sitting Puppy
#55 No Crumb Left Behind!
#56 I Found This Rock Amusing
#57 This Suspicious Chicken
#58 Do You See Him?
#59 As A Plumber, This Is Me Walking Into Every Job
#60 Homer As Seen Through A Hotel Room Peep Hole
#61 That One Guy That Hates His Job
#62 Donkey
#63 There’s Someone In My Head, And It’s Not Me (Brain MRI)
#64 Banana Peel
#65 Smash My Thumb Last Week Now It Looks Like Nuclear Fallout
#66 This Box Has Seen Better Times
#67 Clouds Art Once Again
#68 Dog’s Ear
#69 Found This Beauty Scrolling Facebook Today
#70 Raphael
#71 Virtual Reality
#72 This Bicycle’s Shadow Looks Like Alien Playing On Saxophone
#73 Can’t Unsee
#74 Compost Surprise
#75 Everything Reminds Me Of Her
#76 Sad Parfait
#77 Is It Just Me? My Kid Says I’m Nuts
#78 Face In The Floor
#79 Woman’s Hair Or Dog With Glasses?🤔🤔🤔
#80 This Puddle Looks Like A Silhouette Of Someone From Behind
#81 Almost Every Morning My Coat Hanger Gives Me A Mini Heart Attack
#82 If You Litter, You Won’t Like What’s Next
#83 Mr Couch Would Like You To Sit
#84 Eric Cartman Appearing From Sunlight Reflected Through A Crystal
#85 Cloud That Looks Like A Duck
#86 Tormented Souls In My Cream/Chocolate Dessert
#87 My Shoe Laughed At Me
#88 Kids On TikTok Self Diagnosing With Pareidolia Thinking It’s A Mental Illness
#89 Looked To My Right At A Stoplight And Noticed This Family Of Boxes Staring Wistfully At The Sunset
#90 USB-Chan Is Best Waifu
#91 Porg Trying To Swallow A Banana
