Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas in Austin and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, asked people what patterns they could see in arrangements of dots or stock market information. Before asking, Whitson and Galinsky made half their participants feel a lack of control, either by giving them feedback unrelated to their performance or by having them recall experiences where they had lost control of a situation.The results were striking. The subjects who sensed a loss of control were much more likely to see patterns where there were none. "We were surprised that the phenomenon is as widespread as it is," Whitson says. What's going on, she suggests, is that when we feel a lack of control we fall back on superstitious ways of thinking. That would explain why religions enjoy a revival during hard times.
Das verrät uns nicht nur etwas darüber, wie Religion funktioniert, sondern sagt ebensoviel über Hellseher und Verschwörungstheorien aus. Dass Verschwörungstheorien ein Schutzmechanismus des Machtlosen sind war Thema eines früheren Blog-Posts. Und wer zählt zum Kundenkreis der Wahrsager wenn nicht Menschen, die die Kontrolle über Leben, Liebe und Beruf verloren haben?
Die Hilflosigkeit des Opfers ist der rote Faden, der die Gewänder aller Scharlatane verbindet. Diese und der traurige Umstand, dass die Hilfe bloße Einbildung ist.
