Illusory correlation is when a person finds connection, or correlation between two random events that share no actual correlation. This could be thinking you got an A on your exam because you wore green that day. People enjoy finding order in the chaos.
My friends and I were talking last week about weird phobias. I have one friend afraid of thunderstorms, and another afraid of toes. I then said that I am afraid to throw up. This sparked a conversation that relates to psychology. We all talked about certain foods that we cannot eat anymore because we associate eating them with being sick or throwing up. My one friend cannot eat ice cream anymore because she thinks eating it causes vomiting. I cannot have Nutterbutter’s. We all consider these foods to cause or be a precursor to becoming sick.
We also learned in class that correlation does not mean causation. I am not allergic to peanuts, chocolate, or wafers. This mean there was no way that a Nutterbutter caused my illness. I probably caught a disease and happened to eat that beforehand.
After talking about weird illusory correlations, my other friend explained how she is certain that the Steeler’s win because she wears the same socks every time they win. She explained how she also thinks that because she sleeps on her left side, she will get an A on her tests the next day. She insists this is the only reason that she does well on exams.
We all try to find the correlation between things to explain the chaos in our lives. It is comforting to think that as long as we avoid chocolatey snacks or cold creamy desserts we won’t get sick anymore. It is nice to think that we helped our favorite team win because of our socks.