by 
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
Go to Source
Author: Caitlin Dempsey
