Why Do We See Things That Aren't There?

The human brain is a marvelous machine -- for some tasks. It is great at spotting patterns, but not so great at evaluating probabilities, which means it often can't tell signal from noise. Some of the consequences of this are apophenia, pareidolia, and anthropomorphism. In this video I explain what this is and what to keep in mind when you evaluate information.

0:00 Intro
0:55 Apophenia
1:42 Pareidolia
5:53 Anthropomorphism
7:58 Sponsor Message

[ravensnflies]

is it just me or did the clouds say a dirty werd?

[caffeinecreature]

"Even my hair sometimes looks like hair."

And thus I'm once again reminded why I follow this channel.

[Lord.Kiltridge]

"Are we alone in the universe?" she asked.
"Yes, " said the Oracle.
"So there's no other life out there?"
"There is. They're alone too."

[joshuaklein]

“Even my hair sometimes looks like hair”. Mood

[wuodanstrasse]

Dr. Hossenfelder:
I am an old has been man now. Badly shot up and much worse when shot down multiple times. Marine Colonel, physicist, Plasma & QED. Worked ever so hard to get my now mostly obsolete education from professors that were nearly impossible to follow despite always being well prepared in advance.

You somehow make everything you discuss so incredibly easy to thoroughly

[purplepothos]

One of my favourite quotes: "Brains are Survival Engines, not Truth Detectors"

[phonaesthem]

Sabine, your deadpan humor is the cherry on top of the fascinating and accessible science content. Thank you!

[roccov]

As soon as I saw the title, I said to myself "because the brain is a pattern recognizing machine".

Nailed it!

[invertedxtrovert]

Your daughter said “hair” because there was a hair in her spaghetti. Never doubt your young children.

[mikehawk]

I would have walked straight into that mountain lion lol

[WoefulPie]

"I'm not saying it's the best channel. But it's the best channel!"

[richardbradley]

Probably my favourite youtube chanel at the moment

[poruatokin]

I just love the summary, "Sometime we just see Jesus on the butt of a dog". Thanks for that laugh.

[eljcd]

"Can you spot the mountain lion?"
Lion? what li...Aaaargh!!

[nHans]

I'm concerned that Sabine's daughter saw an actual human or animal hair, but her mom misunderstood and made her eat the spaghetti, hair and all. 🤣
Happened to me when I was a toddler. My mom was feeding me rice pudding. I said "fly." She said "no, raisin. Raiiii ... ZINNN!" and shoved it into my mouth. It was disgusting. 🤮

[walrus]

We've known for a long time that Dog is God spelt backwards, but now we have proof that God is in a dog's backside!

[SquirrelASMR]

LOL "even my hair sometimes looks like hair" 😂😂😂 your hair always looks wonderful and so do you

[creepermasher]

Great explanation of this bias, it is so prevalent that when you explain it to some people they simply cannot believe you because it goes against everything they already believe in.

[chriswhitt]

I absolutely love your channel. Pitched just right for lots of us lay people as well as more advanced viewers and I love the humour too. Fantastic stuff.

[SearchBucket]

Sabine, you're a diamond!
In a world infested with irrationality and ignorance we so need this stuff eloquently delivered for wider public consumption. Many thanks ....