pattern discernment under stress

[edmoorester at gmail.com]

> http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/see-a-pattern-here/


> See a Pattern on Wall Street?By JOHN TIERNEY


Take a look at the two blurry images below. Can you see an object hidden in  
each one?


> .
> Before I give the answers, here's another question: Do you feel a certain  
> lack of control over events right now?


> These questions are not unrelated, according to a report in the new issue  
> of Science by Jennifer Whitson and Adam Galinsky.



> The researchers say that their experiments, which also tested people's  
> tendency to detect conspiracies and see superstitious lessons in stories,  
> help explain why conspiracy theories and superstitions flourish when  
> people are feeling out of control.


> In the experiments by Dr. Whitson and Dr. Galinsky, people were were more  
> likely to see nonexistent patterns after they'd been assigned frustrating  
> tasks with nonsensical rewards and punishments, or after they'd been  
> asked to recall situations in which they'd felt out of control. Dr.  
> Galinsky, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern  
> University, noted some historical examples of this tendency, like the  
> reactions of Londoners during the bombing of their city in World War II.


“Even though later statistical analysis clearly demonstrated that the bombs  
fell randomly across the city, people were certain that parts of the city  
had been targeted and other parts spared,” he told me. “People in those  
areas of the city seemingly spared came under suspicion as Nazi  
sympathizers, and their livelihoods and physical safety were threatened.  
And in those areas seemingly targeted by the bombs, people moved out,  
attempting to escape systematic bombing that was in fact not systematic.”


The researchers noted that the delusion of order might be useful in some  
circumstances, if only because it eases depression and gives people  
confidence.

Dr. Whitson told me:
> Feeling in control might be one of the central animating forces for  
> psychological and physical well-being. Not only are people who feel in  
> control less likely to see things that aren't there and end up chasing  
> ghosts, as our research shows, but there are also a wide variety of  
> health and societal benefits. When people are given information about a  
> medical procedure – and thus feel less uncertain – they recover more  
> quickly.

> So should we all be tending plants until the financial crisis eases? Or  
> have you found some other techniques for feeling in control? And, however  
> you did on the test with the images, can you recall any instances when  
> you saw any kind of pattern that wasn't really there?



ed
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20100802/9c8b0ea4/attachment.html>