Apophenia is the human tendency to conceive meaningful patterns or connections in random and meaningless data.  The term apophenia was coined to describe the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. Science historian Michael Schemer called this phenomenon patternicity.  Humans tend to see spontaneous connections between unconnected events, people, and lives, and weave meaning into those connections (Shermer, 2007).

             Some basic type of apophenia include; clustering illusion which is the tendency to consider the presence of a pattern of some kind in truly random samples. This arises from the tendency to underestimate the variability in data. Confirmation bias when checking if a certain assumption is right, humans tend to give emphasis on proving it to be true, rather than false. Gambler’s fallacy that refers to assuming that there's more probability of something happening since it has not happened before or in a long time. Paraeidolia referring to the phenomenon of seeing different shapes or faces in any object is the most common form of apophenia (Shermer, 2012)

            Existing examples of apophenia is gamblers; gamblers believe that they see patterns in numbers. It happens sometimes that gamblers expect a certain outcome because it hasn't come in a long time. Seeing faces or patterns on the moon is a very common example of apophenia. We love to stare at the moon and find a man, a staircase leading to heaven, chariots and dragons. Children will mostly find clouds resembling certain animals, people, or other objects; adults also tend to derive meaning out of various shapes. We tend to see faces in the dust on vehicles, or even on a piece of toast. This may include seeing familiar faces or symbols of our religious affliation. Even from illuminated surfaces, or the texture of a wall, we tend to imagine shapes or patterns and derive meaning out of them.

            Apophenia also surfaces in the more complex patterns of our world in our normal interactions. Conspiracy theories, such as the destruction of the twin towers of 9/11 were believed to be a controlled demolition perpetrated by the  Bush government, are confabulations based on misperceived patterns. For example, despite a lack of evidence showing a causal connection, many parents do not vaccinate their children because they believe such vaccinations cause disability.

             Although there is no substantial explanation to the existence of apophenia, there exist theories that try to explain the tendency. A proximate cause , in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model e.g.  Religionists see the Virgin Mary or chariots in cloud forms and Paranormals may hear voices of deceased relatives speaking to them through a radio receiver.

            An argument is put forward that our brains are belief engines: evolved pattern-recognition machines that connect the random events and create meaning out of the patterns that we think we see in nature. Sometimes the dots are connected, sometimes they are not. When it is, we learn something valuable about the environment from which we can make predictions that help in survival and reproduction (Shermer, 2012).

 

                                                           

 

 

                                                                        

 

                                                            Works Cited

Shermer, Michael. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition and Other     Confusions of Our Time. London: Souvenir Press, 2007.

Shermer, Michael. The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies- How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them As Truths. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2012.

Shermer, Michael. How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science. New York: H.      Holt, 2003.