Perceiving order in the midst of chaos

[David Baxter PhD]

Combating Dangerous Pattern Perceptions
Posted by Marks Psychiatry on Friday, June 12, 2009 ? 1 Comment

Perceiving patterns where none exist, a psychological phenomenon called pattern perception, is a mental coping mechanism used by many people to combat uncertainty when events spin their lives out of control (see Is Uncertainty Making Us More Superstitious?). It?s a phenomenon that?s on the rise in these times of economic uncertainty where rising unemployment, catastrophic investment losses, mortgage foreclosures, and a host of other worrisome factors have shattered people?s faith in their ability to control their future.

That loss of control generates an extreme anxiety that can impel people to create and act on connections and associations between innocuous, unrelated events, according to research published in the journal Science. In a series of experiments conducted by Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University?s Kellogg School of Management, researchers found that people can trick themselves into seeing nefarious conspiracies behind government pronouncements or business announcements.

Structure and order have a calming effect on our psyches while chaos generates anxiety that can lead to panic or depression. The desire for order can become so overwhelming that people fantasize connections between events to bring order to a world that they feel has become dangerously chaotic.

?Feelings of control are so important to people that a lack of control is inherently threatening,? Galinsky explained. ?While some misperceptions can be bad or lead one astray, they?re extremely common and most likely satisfy a deep and enduring psychological need.?

The danger comes when people believe in or act on the imaginary patterns they have created. Illusory stock market trends can lead to poor investment decisions and increased financial anxiety. Imagined conspiracies between co-workers can increase job stress to intolerable levels. Delusional thinking can cause marital stress and jeopardize personal relationships. Fantasized government agendas can lead to paranoia and panic.

Exerting phantom control over chaotic events in our lives through pattern perception can hide a very real need for psychiatric help in coping with anxiety, panic disorders or depression. The combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodynamic therapy practiced by Atlanta psychiatrist Dr. Tracey Marks is effective in helping people find healthy ways to cope with and mitigate the uncertainties that pervade life today without resorting to harmful pattern perception.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Is Uncertainty Making Us More Superstitious?

Is Uncertainty Making Us More Superstitious?
by Marks Psychiatry
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The need to feel that we are in control of our lives is so basic to our sense of well being that many people may be finding safe harbor from uncertainty in superstitious thinking. When any aspect of our life spins out of control, as it has for many during these uncertain economic times, our need for control and order is so compelling that we will trick ourselves into finding patterns where none exist to stave off a growing sense of unease and anxiety. We may see trends in stock market activity or find unintended meanings in business meetings or impose hidden agendas on government announcements ? all in an attempt to bring order to chaos.

Human ?desire to combat uncertainty and maintain control through structure can sometimes be so all consuming that people trick themselves into seeing and believing things that simply do not exist,? explains David Butcher of ThomasNet Industrial Market Trends in an online article about compelling new research published in the journal Science.

In a series of experiments conducted by Jennifer Whitson, assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin and Adam Galinsky, Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, lack of control caused study participants to ?see images in noise, form illusory correlations in stock market information and even perceive conspiracies and develop superstitions,? Butcher noted.

?The less control people have over their lives, the more likely they are to try and regain control through mental gymnastics,? Galinsky said. In one experiment, people were shown pages of random dots, half formed images, half did not. Nearly half of study participants found discernible shapes in the dots without images. Finding patterns even when there were none had a calming effect on study participants and made them feel more in control.

Researchers applied the same principle to stock market investment. Study participants were given an equal ratio of positive to negative information about two companies. Those told that the market was volatile placed more weight on negative comments, determining investment to be riskier than it actually was. In another experiment, participants who lacked control were quick to find conspiracies lurking behind ordinary events. For example, in a story of a worker passed over for promotion, participants blamed co-worker sabotage.