I used to know a psychologist that talked about this. It's linked into a whole bunch of other research such as theory-of-mind and other pieces. Seeing patterns

I used to know a psychologist that talked about this. It's linked into a whole bunch of other research such as theory-of-mind and other pieces. Seeing patterns that aren't there is perfectly natural - because we've grown up and been designed to expect patterns. Most of our life is cause and effect, so when we see an effect we're naturally inclined to extrapolate on the cause... You see a fresh kill on the savanna, it's pretty reasonable to conclude there is a predator around... This works really well most of the time, which is why we do it. Of course, it doesn't always work... But it's to be expected.