This is abhorrence to the unknown is thought to be part of our psychology. We make patterns and molds in which to fit the world into. It makes internal processing much easier, especially when confronted with a dangerous situation. For example, when things, such as the sea-blob, go against our conceived notions of ocean animals we are more cautious as we don't know to internally lable them as "safe and cuddly" or "they will eat your arm off". (read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141622) I'm not a super big fan of this article as its very anthropocentric but it points to some ideas about patterns that have been thought to help us survive. While the above article may refute this, animals do a similar "patternization" of their surroundings. Its a shortcut to take in senses, really, but I think it often leads to, as Juliette said, schismogenesis. In my classes I haven't found much literature contradicting the "pattern" notions of sensing per psychology, as much as I don't like them. I'd be interested to see if other had come across any literature.