Seeing Shapes in Clouds
Fun with clouds. Not so much with people.
As a kid, do you remember lying on the grass and finding dragons and other random creatures in the clouds? That’s called Pareidolia, the technical name for seeing shapes in the sky or bubbling faces in cups of coffee. Our brains detect familiar patterns, then project them onto objects we see.
We do this to people, too.
We spot a familiar pattern—a tone, a look, a vague similarity to someone else—and then project meaning onto them. That’s why two people can say of the same person…
“He’s so full of himself.”
“Really?! He seems really down to earth.”
One sees a dragon. The other a big ol’ teddy bear.
That’s why we must be careful with our judgments—or better yet, aim to overcome them. I’m not suggesting reading people or picking up on certain cues is impossible. But often, we’re just projecting our own patterns onto others. Sometimes, we see in people things we’d rather not see in ourselves.
It’s fun to find shapes in the clouds. It’s risky to do that with people.