The tendency to perceive meaningful connections, patterns, or relationships between unrelated things — seeing faces in clouds or finding significance in coincidences.

Coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in 1958 in his study of schizophrenia, where the phenomenon appeared as a symptom of disordered thinking.

A mild form is considered cognitively normal and may have evolutionary roots, as pattern recognition — even false pattern recognition — was often useful for survival.

Related to pareidolia, the specific subtype in which faces or figures are perceived in random visual stimuli such as clouds, wood grain, or toast.

The word derives from the Greek apo (away from) and phainein (to show), conveying the idea of meaning that has strayed from its true source.