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Patterns in noise

Stare at any noisy image for a while, and you will see a face or some other figure in it. Once it has been seen it cannot be unseen. Pareidolia is a common and unavoidable perceptual quirk. Some artists have used it consciously, such as Dalì with his paranoiac-critical method. Beginning with some random blot any figures discovered in it can be reinforced, the image can be built up around these perceived figures that are really just random variations.

Jennifer A. Whitson and Adam D. Galinsky argue that loss of control, real or perceived, makes us more prone to detect patterns in noise:

> We propose that when individuals are unable to gain a sense of control objectively, they will try to gain it perceptually.

And it's not limited to seeing patterns or figures:

> Despite their surface disparities, seeing figures in noise, forming illusory correlations, creating superstitious rituals, and perceiving conspiracy beliefs all represent the same underlying process: the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli.

> Because these feelings of control are so essential for psychological well-being, our main hypothesis is that lacking control will lead to illusory pattern perception, which we define as the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli (such as the tendency to perceive false correlations, see imaginary figures, form superstitious rituals, and embrace conspiracy beliefs, among others).

> Pattern perception is a compensatory mechanism designed to restore feelings of control.

Superstitions, religious myths, and some rituals could presumably be explained as strategies to deal with uncertainty, especially in older times when humans had much less control over nature. The technological and scientific society gave us, collectively, greater control over our circumstances, which may also explain an increase in atheism and rationalism. Current decline in the functioning of democracies, worsening economy, several concurrent threats such as climate change, resource depletion, mass extinction, and global conflicts all contribute to a loss of control for most people (except, perhaps, the top one ppm). All of these factors of concurrent loss of control should add up to an enormous willingness to perceive figures where there are none and to attribute any nefarious causes involving humans to conspiracies. It is an interesting perspective, itself a pattern which would need solid research methods and data to prop it up.

Artistic techniques of pareidolia involve the controlled use of randomness, or rather the acceptance of haphazard results on the premise that you generate lots of material and choose the best items, or modify the random blobs, push them in the direction of a desired figure.

Decalcomania is one such technique which is simple and fun to experiment with. Take two sheets of paper, paint a thin layer of gouache paint on one of them, perhaps thinned out with some water, then press the two sheets together. The receiving sheet may be pressed onto a third sheet. Complex fractal patterns may build up, especially if the process is repeated a few times.

The purpose of Rorchach's ink blobs is precisely to provide ambiguous stimuli that can be interpreted in many different ways. Supposedly, aspects of the interpretations can reveal personal traits. The method has been criticised, however, because the psychologist issuing the test in turn must interpret the ambiguous stimuli of the patient's description of what the blobs resemble to them.

Reference

Witson, J. and Galinsky, A. (2008). Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception. Science, Vol 322, Issue 5898, pp. 115-117.

(It's a shame the paper is behind a paywall.)

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