Why Our Brains Find Meaning in Random Patterns
The Science of Happiness
PRX and Greater Good Science Center
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 October 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when imagination meets perception, and ordinary objects come alive? We explore the science of pareidolia.
Summary: Our minds are wired to find meaning, even in randomness— which is why sometimes we can see faces and patterns in everyday objects. In this episode of The Science of Happiness, we explore how this phenomenon, called pareidolia, can shift how we experience our surroundings and open ourselves to more creativity, connection, and calm.
How To Do This Practice:
- Pause and settle: Take a few slow breaths and allow yourself to slow down. Let your mind soften its focus.
- Choose your space: Look around your home, your walk, or wherever you are. Everyday objects work best— walls, trees, clouds, shadows.
- Let curiosity lead: Notice shapes, textures, or patterns that catch your eye. Don’t try to find something, just observe.
- See what appears: Allow your imagination to play. Do you see a face, an animal, a tiny scene hidden in plain sight?
- Stay with it: Notice how it feels to find meaning in randomness. What emotions or memories come up?
- Reflect and return: Take a final look around. Does your space or the way you see the things around you feel any different now?
Scroll down for a transcription of this episode.
Today’s Guests:
MALIK MAYS is an Oakland-based musician who also releases music under the name Mahawam.
Learn more about Malik here: https://mahawam.com/bio
ANTOINE BELLEMARE-PEPIN is a neuroscientist and artist, who researches the connection between pareidolia and creativity.
Learn more about Antoine here: https://tinyurl.com/233w9rym
Related The Science of Happiness episodes:
The Healing Effects of Experiencing Wildlife: https://tinyurl.com/bde5av4z
Why Going Offline Might Save Us: https://tinyurl.com/e7rhsakj
How To Tune Out The Noise: https://tinyurl.com/4hhekjuh
Related Happiness Breaks:
Pause to Look at the Sky: https://tinyurl.com/4jttkbw3
How To Ground Yourself in Nature: https://tinyurl.com/25ftdxpm
Make Uncertainty Part of the Process: https://tinyurl.com/234u5ds7
Tell us about your experience with this practice. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or follow on Instagram @HappinessPod.
Help us share The Science of Happiness! Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap
Transcription: https://tinyurl.com/yzp9hykv
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I allowed myself to take time to do something frivolous. |
| 0:07.0 | I walked around my house like a child looking for bugs or something. |
| 0:12.0 | I was washing dishes and I looked down and there was a little bit of soap on the countertop |
| 0:17.0 | and I wiped the soap away and I saw a face that it maybe looked like a |
| 0:22.7 | football player with their helmet off but they had the shoulder pants on but then |
| 0:26.6 | it looked more like an astronaut that had taken their helmet off maybe they had just |
| 0:31.0 | come home from a mission or they were rehearsing for a mission but there's kind of |
| 0:36.5 | like a shiny spot next to a dark spot that looked like it might be like a speech bubble for a mission, but there's kind of like a shiny spot next to a dark spot that |
| 0:38.9 | looked like it might be like a speech bubble for a little cartoon and watching the reflections |
| 0:44.9 | move back and forth in the light. Kind of gave it a sense of motion and I wasn't expecting that. |
| 0:50.4 | It was just cleaning my house. And that was really fun. It's very freeing, gets you something |
| 0:56.2 | fun to do, and I think a lot of times people's days are not necessarily fun, and this is a way |
| 1:03.5 | for you to take some control over your time and engage yourself in play. Have you ever looked into a cloud or a pattern in the wall and seen a face staring back at you? |
| 1:16.5 | It's called peridolia when our brains spot familiar patterns, like faces or figures in random objects. |
| 1:24.8 | Welcome to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dachar Keltner. |
| 1:31.1 | Researchers say peridolia may help prime our minds for creativity and understand more about diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. |
| 1:39.0 | We'll hear reflections from Oakland-based musician Malik Mays about trying |
| 1:44.2 | peridolia as a mindfulness practice. Even something as simple as a window, like a |
| 1:49.8 | two-paned window, that became a cyclops. And later, we'll speak with neuroscientist and |
| 1:55.1 | artist Antoine Belmar Pepin about his research on the connection between |
| 1:59.4 | peridolia and creativity. |
| 2:01.9 | I think this deep connection between creativity and nature and how |
... |
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