← all facts
pattern
You see patterns in noise that are not actually there.
A 1967 study showed that clinicians perceived correlations between personality traits and drawing styles that were completely absent from the data.
This is an illusory correlation. Your brain is a pattern-recognition machine that is over-eager to find meaning. Even when presented with purely random variables, you will build a theory to link them because the discomfort of chaos is greater than the effort of creating a false rule.
Your brain would rather be wrong than uncertain.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Chapman and Chapman, 1967, Journal of Abnormal Psychology
- What the check found
- The study (Chapman & Chapman, 1967) is a seminal piece of psychological literature establishing the concept of illusory correlation. The citation is accurate and the summary reflects the study's findings.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.