People who feel that they lack control while participating in lab experiments are more likely to see patterns where none exist, researchers say, in a finding that helps explain persistent beliefs in superstitions and conspiracy theories. In a new study, researchers manipulated volunteers’ perception of control and then watched the insecure subjects find connections where none existed in an apparent attempt to restore a sense of order to the world.
In one experiment, researchers gave half the volunteers a feeling of powerlessness and confusion by randomly scoring them right and wrong (and mostly wrong) on a series of questions. Then the volunteers had to find patterns. In one task, they were asked to find faint images in grainy patterns of dots. Half of the pictures had images and the others were random dots. While people in both groups correctly spotted the images, the group that felt they lacked control from a previous part of the experiment also “saw” images in 43 percent of pictures that were not there [Reuters].
