Pareidolia is the psychological effect of seeing faces or specific patterns in random or vague objects, which online turned into the Things With Faces photo genre[2].

Where did Pareidolia come from?

The earliest known online discussion appeared on the Straight Dope Forums on June 1, 2001, and the visual photo meme took shape on Flickr in 2005 before spreading to Reddit and dedicated blogs[3].

What does Pareidolia mean?

It means perceiving a specific pattern, usually a face, in a vague or random stimulus, and comes from Greek roots "para" (beside) and "eidolon" (form)[1].

How do you use Pareidolia?

Photograph an everyday object where the shape looks like a face and share it with a caption describing the mood or dialogue for the accidental face[2].

Is Pareidolia still popular?

The /r/pareidolia subreddit and photo blogs like Faces in Places kept the format alive well past its 2010s peak, and it is still one of the classic photo genres online[4].

What was the Drunk Octopus post?

A December 12, 2010 Reddit post by user Kidsturk to /r/pics showing a clothes hanger with the graffiti caption "Drunk octopus wants to fight you," which racked up over 12,100 upvotes[3].

Do computers experience pareidolia?

Yes, The Atlantic reported in August 2012 that facial recognition software often flags faces in random objects the same way humans do[1].

Why do humans see faces in objects?

Carl Sagan argued in The Demon-Haunted World that face recognition is hardwired in infants as a survival adaptation for parent-child bonding[1].

What are famous religious pareidolia examples?

Older cases include Oral Roberts's 900-foot Jesus vision in Oklahoma in 1980, a crucified Christ image on a California garage door in 1981, and Jesus on a Pizza Hut billboard in Atlanta in 1991[5].

Where do people post Things With Faces photos?

The /r/pareidolia subreddit, Faces in Places blog, and dedicated Flickr and Tumblr groups are the main hubs for the format[4].

Pareidolia

2005image genreclassic

Published September 20, 2026

Pareidolia, sometimes called Things With Faces, is the psychological trick of seeing faces in inanimate objects, which grew into a photo genre through Flickr groups, subreddits, and dedicated blogs starting in the mid-2000s. Everyday objects like electrical outlets, houses, cheese graters, and clothes hangers got documented as accidental characters, and the format became one of the internet's longest-running photo memes.

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Overview

Pareidolia is what your brain does when it recognizes faces in objects that do not have any, and Things With Faces is the photo genre built around documenting the trick2. Common subjects include electrical outlets, cars with headlight eyes and grille mouths, houses, cheese graters, alarm clocks, and appliances2. Some entries stay pure photo dumps, others anthropomorphize the object with a caption, a personality, or a bit of dialogue, like the 2010 clothes hanger post that named its subject a drunk octopus looking for a fight3.

Human brains come pre-wired for face detection. Carl Sagan wrote about this in his 1995 book The Demon-Haunted World, arguing that infants who recognized parental faces earlier bonded more strongly and were more likely to survive1. Facial recognition software carries the same bias, which The Atlantic covered in August 2012 with examples of algorithms flagging faces in rocky hillsides and other random scenes1. That shared quirk between people and machines is why the pareidolia genre feels universal: no one has to explain why the pipe looks angry, everyone sees it.

Origin & Background

Platform

Flickr (photo groups) / Reddit (viral spread)

Date

2005

The earliest known online discussion of the word pareidolia appeared on the Straight Dope Forums on June 1, 2001, when user Irishman posted asking for help investigating the word's origin3. Urban Dictionary followed on July 21, 2004, with an entry from user Fred Ressler defining pareidolia as a misperception of an ambiguous stimulus as something specific7. The visual side moved to Flickr in 2005 with a dedicated pareidolia photo group launched on March 16, and dedicated single-topic blogs like Faces in Places started collecting the images from 2006 onward4.

How It Spread

How to Use This Meme

The format typically starts with an accidental spot. Someone notices a face in an outlet, a rock, a water stain, or a piece of hardware, then photographs it head-on so the face reads clearly2. Common conventions include a caption naming what mood the object seems to be in (angry outlet, surprised backpack, sleepy garage door) or writing dialogue for the imagined face. Submissions typically go to /r/pareidolia, dedicated Tumblrs, or theme blogs, and tagged uploads on Flickr collect them into browsable feeds.

Pareidolia

Overview

Origin & Background

How It Spread

How to Use This Meme

Frequently Asked Questions

References (8)