Apophenia

The tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. Apophenia has come to imply a human propensity to seek patterns in random information, such as while gambling.

Cause

One of the explanations put forth by evolutionary psychologists for apophenia is that it is not a flaw in the cognition of human brains but rather something that has come about through years of need.

Consequences

Apophenia can be considered a commonplace effect of brain function. Taken to an extreme, however, it can be a symptom of psychiatric dysfunction, for example, as a symptom in paranoid schizophrenia. Apophenia is also typical of conspiracy theories, where coincidences may be woven together into an apparent plot.

Related

-Pareidolia -Gambler's fallacy