Religious interpretation of stimuli boosted by wish for moral justice

[Perspicuo]

People See God on Grilled Cheese Because They Want To Say Scientists
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/people-see-god-grilled-cheese-because-they-want-say-scientists-1443626

People see religious iconography in items ranging from grilled cheese to bird faeces and dogs' bottoms because they need moral justice, claims a new study.

The paper, published in the journal Cognition, explains that the psychological phenomenon known as "pareidolia" (of which the "man in the moon" is the most famous example) is enhanced by the presence of moral content.

"Over the course of three experiments, we found that participants correctly identified strings of letters as words more often when they formed moral words (69% accuracy) than when they formed non-moral words (65%)," the study said.

"This suggested that moral content gave a 'boost' to perceptually ambiguous stimuli — a shortcut to conscious awareness. We call this phenomenon the 'moral pop-out effect.'"

 

[Perspicuo]

I shall now add punctuation:

People See God on Grilled Cheese Because They Want To Say "Scientists".

People See God on Grilled Cheese Because They Want To, Say Scientists.

People See God on Grilled Cheese, Because! "They Want To", Say Scientists.

People, See God on Grilled Cheese! Because They Want To Say Scientists.

 

[Angry Floof]

The dog's ass Jesus must be deeply confusing to the morally hungry.

 

[Angry Floof]

From the referenced paper:

In 2004, a woman from Florida sold a decade old, partially burnt, grilled cheese sandwich on eBay for $28,000 (Associated Press, 2004). The bidders clamored to pay over 14,000 times the value of the toast because an image of the Virgin Mary was perceived to be staring out from its charred center.

I'm starting to get some very devious ideas.

 

[Perspicuo]

From the referenced paper:

I'm starting to get some very devious ideas.

Not devious--mainstream!

 

[fromderinside]

Not devious--mainstream!

By mainstream do you mean this