Red Maple in bloom

I didn't know the word pareidolia  until it became the theme for our next GNO Christmas gift.   I do remember reading a few articles before that postulating that the tendency for the human brain to see patterns is a survival strategy so it's possible I had come across it.   I have been thinking about  'pareidolia' lately trying to figure out an appropriate gift and suddenly I'm hearing the word often.   Yesterday, I perked up when some guest on a TV talk show mentioned pareidolia.  Today's Words With Friends word search game's subject was pareidolia.  Tonight I was listening to Dan Brown's latest audio book and - you guessed it - the characters talked about pareidolia.  Friend Nancy said she also  had just seen the word in a Facebook post.   No, it's not that BIG BROTHER is listening in on our conversations and causing this to happen (at least I don't think so - ha).   It's most likely the Baader-Meinhof phenomena or 'frequency illusion'.    A new word or object can cause us to have selective attention.  For example, someone is considering buying a red car.   Their brain will prioritize and 'flag' any red car encounter.   Therefore, every subsequent red car seems confirmation that there are are a lot of red cars - reinforcing the perception of frequency even though there are no more red cars than usual.    There are some fascinating examples of  the Baader-Meinhof  phenomena in our history (even the name has a story behind it).   Cool stuff but doesn't get me any closer to a pareidolia Christmas gift.

By the way, I've posted about the Baader-Meinhof phenomena before.  Interestingly enough in conjunction w/ a GNO Christmas gift idea.