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Spectacular cloud with legs walking above the houses today in Gavà, an image that I captured for La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos.
The shape of the cloud has attracted attention and the optical effect even more so. This phenomenon, that of perceiving a recognizable shape and giving it an interpretation in other objects, is called pareidolia. In this case, we get the impression that the cloud has legs and walks.
It is a common psychological phenomenon that not only occurs in clouds, but we can also find it in any element that is around us.
Some psychologists work on pareidolia and use the Rorschach inkblot test to interpret supposed hidden emotions. The test includes images that are created by dropping ink onto the paper and folding the paper in half.
The psychologist asks his patient to interpret the resulting image and, in theory, this his most intimate thoughts about the random image. But the validity of this method is widely debated.
