Even the most laid back among us crave a sense of control, and when we feel helpless we scour our surroundings for anything that will restore predictability. New research shows that when we lack control we don’t simply wait for order to return: we impose it, if only in our own minds, by imagining patterns and trends where none exist.
In six experiments, psychologists Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University manipulated subjects’ sense of control. In some trials, they gave participants either random feedback or no feedback at all on a tricky experimental task; in others, they asked participants to recall a situation in which they lacked control or one in which they had full control. Results showed that not having control caused participants to mistakenly see an image in a field of static, to smell conspiracy in other people’s benign behavior, to embrace superstitious beliefs and to perceive nonexistent stock-market trends. Such illusory perceptions evaporated when participants were first denied control but then given an opportunity to write about their most deeply held values, an activity that bolsters psychological security and quells feelings of helplessness.
The authors observe that illusory pattern perception “may not be entirely maladaptive” if by soothing uncertainty and restoring a sense of control, it encourages us to actively confront unpredictable circumstances rather than withdrawing from them. One unanswered question, they add, is whether loss of control also heightens people’s speed or accuracy in detecting patterns that do exist.
This article was originally published with the title Finding Control in Chaos.
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3 Comments
Add CommentThis modest article would seem to bring us to the brink of many larger issues. Much that we perceive as having 'order' in the natural world are forms generated by naturally occurring fractals. The power of such forms is in their appeal to human aesthetic values (one thinks of such examples as univalve mollusc shells, or sunflower seed heads), but such emotional perceptions find place only in the human mind. They are not an intrinsic part of what is 'out there'. This also applies to pareidolia 'faces' in rocks and tree bark, which have no reality beyond the human mind which perceives them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo as this article suggests, it is the human mind which seeks these orders in chaos, both for it's own sense of reassurance and to impart a feeling that things have a purpose and are 'under control'. Perhaps this also applies to issues of belief. I would suggest that an opportunity to truly see much of what we regard as our reality involves a certain degree of fearless recognition of the difference between how much is imposed by human perceptions, and how much is objective and naturally occurring.
All I know is that SOMETHING is going on..... and SOMEBODY has some explaining to do !
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHumans and animals only maintain mental equilibrium when their usual references are undisturbed. Change those references and mental stability begins to become chaotic. In a chaotic situation, the brain tries to recreate ways of restoring stable references, creating false ones if the original ones cannot be found. Thus people slide into insanity, an artificially created world where imagined references fail to restore a sense of reality. This french perspective agrees with the above article.
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