Apophenia
The tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. It has come to imply a universal human tendency to seek patterns in random information.
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Origin
Coined by German psychiatrist Klaus Conrad (1905–1961) in his 1958 monograph Die beginnende Schizophrenie (The Onset of Schizophrenia). Conrad defined it as 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by 'a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness,' describing the early stages of delusional thought in which patients perceive self-referential patterns in ordinary experience.
Updated February 22, 2026