Editing Bias (section)

====Apophenia====
{{Main|Apophenia|Pareidolia}}{{See also|Hindsight bias}}
Apophenia, also known as patternicity,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shermer |first=Michael |title=Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise |journal=Scientific American |volume=299 |issue=6 |pages=48 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1208-48 |pmid=19143444 |year=2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=GrrlScientist |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/sep/25/michael-shermer-belief-self-deception |title=Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception |newspaper=Guardian |date=29 September 2010 |access-date=2011-06-29 |location=London |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926040551/http://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2010/sep/25/michael-shermer-belief-self-deception |archive-date=26 September 2015 }}</ref> or agenticity,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQO4y2bueAM|title=Why Do We Need a Belief in God with Michael Shermer|website=[[YouTube]] |date=2011-08-19|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314224302/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQO4y2bueAM|archive-date=2016-03-14}}</ref> is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within [[Randomness|random]] data. Apophenia is well documented as a [[Rationalization (making excuses)|rationalization]] for gambling. Gamblers may imagine that they see patterns in the numbers which appear in [[Lottery|lotteries]], [[card game]]s, or [[roulette wheel]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://waterstone.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/apophenia-illusory-correlation/ |title=Apophenia & Illusory Correlation « Paul Xavier Waterstone |publisher=Waterstone.wordpress.com |date=2007-05-24 |access-date=2011-06-29 |archive-date=2014-12-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217012242/http://waterstone.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/apophenia-illusory-correlation/ |url-status=live }}</ref> One manifestation of this is known as the "[[gambler's fallacy]]".

Pareidolia is the visual or auditory form of apophenia. It has been suggested that pareidolia combined with [[hierophany]] may have helped ancient societies organize chaos and make the world intelligible.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rupestreweb.info/china.html |last1=Bustamante |first1=Patricio |last2=Yao |first2=Fay |last3=Bustamante |first3=Daniela |year=2010 |title=The worship to the mountains: a study of the creation myths of the chinese culture |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092744/http://www.rupestreweb.info/china.html |archive-date=2015-09-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bustamante |first1=Patricio |last2=Yao |first2=Fay |last3=Bustamante |first3=Daniela |year=2010 |title=Search for meanings: from pleistocene art to the worship of the mountains in early China. Methodological tools for Mimesis |url=http://www.rupestreweb.info/mimesis.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093315/http://www.rupestreweb.info/mimesis.html |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref>