← all facts
patterns
Your brain creates meaning out of literal noise.
Klaus Conrad originally coined 'apophenia' in 1958 to describe a clinical symptom of the early stages of schizophrenia, not a general human cognitive tendency.
Conrad's 1958 definition specifically referred to the 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by a 'specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness' within the context of psychiatric diagnosis.
You see connections because your survival depends on them.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Conrad, 'Apophenia', 1958
- What the check found
- The definition of 'apophenia' has shifted from a specific clinical symptom of schizophrenia to a general cognitive bias.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.