Brain seeks patterns in coincidences
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11. The brain seeks patterns
Words, numbers,
sentences, maps, chronometers and daily
routines;
The
language of math allows us to predict things such as, for example, where two
cars will meet given their speed and starting location, if other variables are
constant;
The brain
wants to complete patterns, like fi nally fi nishing a tax return or finally
remembering someone’s name and where you met. We can feel its pleasure in
making a correct connection;
Finding
patterns helps with survival. When confronted with certain ambiguities, our
hypersensitive “agency-detecting device” can be activated. For our early human
ancestors, survival was probably enhanced by concluding that a strange
formation off in the distance was a potential predator rather than a fallen log
that only resembled it. Better to be safe and wrong than to be sorry and
attacked.
We also
seem to be predisposed to interpret ambiguous observations and events as
evidence of beneficent agents. Religions, existential philosophies, and science
provide maps for interpreting these ambiguities, thereby satisfying the deeply
felt yearning to comprehend our place in the world and to fend off the usually
disturbing idea that we live in a random universe.
Human
minds also abhor chaos. Observe the effects of sensory deprivation. Subjects
may be blindfolded, have their ears plugged. They may be placed in water at
body temperature or have their arms and hands encased in cardboard. After a
while, as they seek stimuli from which to create order; their minds begin to
disintegrate. Patterns are perceived where none, in fact, exist. Without
external sensation, the brain either attempts to make sense out of its own
activity or amplifies minute sensation into unreal but stabilizing patterns. A CIA
training manual describes the following observations in people who have been
deprived of social input:
“The
symptoms most commonly produced by solitary confi nement are
superstition,intense love of any other living thing, perceiving inanimate
objects as alive, hallucinations and delusions.”
Loneliness
and the loss of control represent different forms of uncertainty, each of which
tends to generate the drive to find patterns. In the first of three studies,
Epley et al correlated self-reported loneliness (on a survey) with the tendency
to imbue inanimate objects with anthropomorphic human intention. People who
reported feeling lonely were more likely to attribute human-like intention to
four technological gadgets including “Pillow Mate” (a torso-shaped pillow that
can be programmed to give a hug). In a related study in the same article,
another pool of subjects took a personality inventory that ostensibly predicted
midlife loneliness or social connection. The subjects were then asked if they
believed in ghosts, the Devil, miracles, and curses. Those in the more
disconnected group reported stronger belief in supernatural agents.
2. The
brain is predisposed to use coincidences to create or discover patterns;
3. The
philosophicalbasisfor interpreting coincidences is provided by fundamental association cortex schemas;
4.
Personally relevant coincidence interpretation is influenced by a person’s
biases;
5. Hemispheric lateralization influences
coincidence detection and interpretation — the right brain associates while the
left brain inhibits;
6. Coincidences suggest the possibility that we can look where we cannot
see.
