Cartopareidolia is the tendency of the human brain to see shapes, such as animals or faces, in the outlines of geographical features on maps.
What is pareidolia?
Pareidolia: the tendency of the human brain to perceive meaningful patterns where actually none may exist, for instance, seeing outlines of familiar shapes in clouds. Pareidolia stems from our natural inclination to interpret ambiguous visual information in a way that is meaningful or recognizable. This cognitive process has evolutionary advantages—quickly identifying potential threats or allies in our surroundings—but it also leads us to “fill in the blanks” when looking at random patterns.
What is cartopareidolia ?
It’s a common phenomenon, even sparking internet meets, that when we look at a map and see the geography, to match the shape of the various landmasses, coastlines, and so on, into images we are familiar with. For example, Italy is well-known as having a “boot” shape; the Arabian Peninsula forms an easily recognizable dog’s head outline.
Often, the resemblance, once it has been noted, becomes impossible to “unsee,” with the social reinforcement of pointing out the shapes to friends or on social media.
The map of the world is really just a cat playing with a ball
Seeing an ice skating dragon in a map of Brooklyn
A map of Australia is half dog’s head and half cat’s head
Seeing Patrick from SpongeBob SquarePants in a satellite image of Venice
Imagining a map of Hawaii as a French bulldog
This article was originally published on March 29, 2019 and has since been updated.
For purposeful maps displaying animals and people
More psychology of maps
Fonte : National Geographic
