Illusory Correlation is a type of study method used in psychology. It is when someone places a correlation or association between two things that are not actually related. People make assumptions and opinions everyday based on things that happen around them, but they may not necessarily be true. People want to make associations between things even if they do not exist just because that is the way our brain works. We find things in our everyday life that want to support these random correlations and therefore do not think about or believe anything that challenges their truth. We use our preexisting knowledge and opinions with our daily observations to make an easy rationale for something occurring. Examples of Illusory correlations are superstitions, stereotypes, prejudices, and phobias. A superstition is an example of this method because it is when people do or wear certain things in order to prevent bad luck, but they are usually irrational because they are just based on previous experiences and life events but would not actually cause bad luck. Figure 1 below indicates different illusory correlations from people making assumptions of why things happen such as kids having autism.
I undergo illusory correlation in my life just as most people do since it is natural. I have used superstitions in my life for certain situations to induce “good luck.” For example my soccer team in high school had superstitions or particular things that we did each game so that we wouldn’t lose. We did things like wearing the same color pre-wrap in our hair for multiple games, doing the same exact warmup routine before each game, and using the same warmup playlist for each game. We believed that if we did not do these things the same way every game that we would lose. We had no actual proof to backup if doing these things was causing us to win, but we did not want to risk it anyway. We were correlating two variables and saying they induced causation so we were perceiving a correlation where one did not exist, exemplifying illusory correlation.
Sources:
“Illusory Correlation .” Illusory Correlation , The Daily Omnivore, 9 June 2015, thedailyomnivore.net/2015/06/09/illusory-correlation/.
Patil, Komal B. “An Abstract on the Concept of Illusory Correlations in Psychology.” PsycholoGenie, PsycholoGenie, 14 July 2017, psychologenie.com/concept-of-illusory-correlations-in-psychology.
I agree in the illusory correlation is extremely interesting. I have always been one to read up on superstitions or conspiracy videos. I have always wondered how those ideas up come or how people start thinking the thought that “gets the ball rolling.” Before learning about it in this class I had no idea that illusory correlation existed or that it can lead to superstitions. I like to lift and one day before a big PR one of my friends said something to me and for a really long time I always thought that if I wanted to PR he would have to say the same thing to me and then one day it did not work and I learned that I had put two things together without evidence that they were attached at all. Overall I also find this topic to be very interesting!