[Ads-l] apophenia

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in OED. MW dates it to "ca1980":

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-avoid-apophenia-bias#what-is-apophenia

Apophenia refers to the human tendency to see patterns and meaning in
random information. The term was coined in 1958 by German neurologist Klaus
Conrad, who was studying the “unmotivated seeing of connections” in
patients with schizophrenia. Statisticians refer to apophenia as
patternicity or a “type I error.”

It's a form of (or related to) pareidolia.

JL
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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