Monday, October 1, 2012

Illusory Correlation

Illusory correlation exists when a person over exaggerates a relationship between two things when no true relationship exists.

One example is the increase in assaults and ice cream consumption during the summer. It could be claimed that ice cream consumption causes more assaults or assaults cause ice cream consumption, but the more likely tie is probably the increased temperatures.

Another commonly made illusory correlation is the idea that it only rains after you wash your car. I had someone share that sentiment on the rear gate of my car not too long ago.

The writing is a little hard to see, but it says "Wash me please. We need the rain." Cute. Not true, but pretty darn common.

One of the more unfortunate results of this is that people begin to project these perceived patterns on large groups of people.


 Here, you can see how the illusory correlation can work to foster prejudice. Because of illusory correlation, Peter makes assumptions based on the appearance of the tutors without waiting for more information. This also ties into the representativeness heuristic and contributes to the development of stereotyping.

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