Illusory Correlation: What Is This Bias, And How Does It Lead To Errors?
Do you know the phenomenon of illusory correlation? It is a very particular response tendency, and at the same time, an error that we make in our information processing, which leads us to establish relationships between two variables that either do not have such a strong relationship, or do not directly exist. Have relationship.
This cognitive bias would largely explain the origin of stereotypes. But in what way? In this article we tell you what illusory correlation consists of, how it works, why it appears, what its relationship is with stereotypes and, in addition, we introduce a concept closely related to it and that may interest you: mental heuristics.
We all have cognitive biases, a type of psychological effect. Cognitive biases are response tendencies systematically maintained in any situation; Their function is adjustment and adaptation, although they are characterized by leading us to errors (although not always), since they divert us from “normal”, rational or logical mental processing
That is, these biases create distortions or inaccurate judgments, and can also cause us to interpret reality in an illogical way. One of these biases is the so-called “illusory correlation”, studied especially by social psychology (in fact, we can frame it in said field of study).
What does it consist of?
Originally, the term illusory correlation was coined by Chapman and Chapman (1967). Regarding its definition, It is the tendency to base ourselves only on confirmatory cases of our ideas or hypotheses while we ignore non-confirmatory cases.
Through illusory correlation, we look for (and even “create”) associations or correlations between different variables that confirm our beliefs, and we end up perceiving the relationship between two or more variables as stronger than it actually is. Sometimes, even, such a relationship does not really exist.
This cognitive bias has a social application in stereotypes, which They are exaggerated perceptions based on few details that we have of some people who share certain characteristics In a certain way, stereotypes are a mechanism of mental economy, which allow us to “simplify reality” and economize cognitive resources, which logically leads to errors.
Thus, in this sense, through the illusory correlation we overestimate uncommon behaviors in minority groups (for example, thinking that all gypsy people steal because only one of them has stolen from us). Normally, we apply the illusory correlation (often unconsciously) to negative behaviors. Later we will go a little deeper into the relationship between stereotypes and illusory correlation.
Mental heuristics
To understand the concept of illusory correlation, it is important that we first know the concept of mental heuristic. Mental heuristics can be considered “mental shortcuts” to our thinking
In a generic way, we could say that they consist of mental rules that we use, unconsciously and automatically, to transform a complex problem into a simpler one. Heuristics help us simplify things, respond faster and find efficient solutions.
Relationship with the availability heuristic
In 1973, Tversky and Kahneman spoke of illusory correlation as one of the possible errors that we can make when applying a specific heuristic, called availability heuristic
The availability heuristic, for its part, consists of a kind of “mental shortcut” that we use to evaluate something, and that causes us to base ourselves on the information that we have most mentally available, which helps optimize our mental effort/work, preventing us from spending unnecessary time in the process.
Thus, when we use the availability heuristic, we access the most recent or most easily accessible mental material in our mind (that is, to material that we have more “at hand”), and we base ourselves on said material to make a judgment or create an opinion regarding a topic.
According to social psychologist and professor Scott Plous (1993), “the more accessible an event is, the more frequent and probable it will seem.” In addition, Plous also specifies that the more vivid the information, the more convincing it will be, and the better we will remember it. On the other hand, The more obvious something is to us, the more causal it will seem to us (i.e., greater probability of thinking that “it” causes a certain phenomenon).
How does illusory correlation work?
In this way, when we apply the availability heuristic, we can make different errors (cognitive biases). One of them is that of the illusory correlation, which implies using only (or as a priority) the information that we have most available
In this case, it is the correlation or association between different stimuli or variables (following the previously mentioned example “gypsies” and “delinquents”), which is most available in our mind, which makes us remember said information much more intensely. association.
This translates into what has already been mentioned, and is overestimating the frequency of appearance of said association. Thus, we think that this association occurs much more frequently than it actually does.
Relationship with stereotypes
We have seen that there is a relationship between stereotypes and illusory correlation, but… what exactly does this relationship consist of?
According to various cognitive psychology studies, the illusory correlation would actually be one of the explanatory mechanisms involved in the origin of stereotypes That is, in a certain way, the illusory correlation would originate stereotypes.
How do stereotypes act through this mechanism (or, as a product of it)? According to Mullen and Johnson (1990) and current research, people overestimate the correlation between two variables that tend to be distinctive and different in others (for example, being gypsy, lower class, homosexual…); This causes us to develop negative stereotypes towards certain social groups (like those mentioned).
Why do we apply the illusory correlation?
As we have seen, on the one hand, the function of heuristics is to simplify our task when solving a problem or analyzing a situation. However, sometimes errors arise as a result of these, as would be the case of illusory correlation.
But why do we make this error or cognitive bias? Cognitive biases often act unconsciously and automatically, or because we have biased information processing (for even deeper reasons), or because our mind wants to economize mental resources; This second case would explain the origin of the stereotypes.
For people (or at least, for our minds), it is much easier (not correct, nor fair, nor logical) to think that “all people of “X” group or social category are like that”, than to think that “ Pepe is like this, Juan is like that, Paula is this other way…”.
Thus, it would be a mechanism for economizing resources, although logically other factors also intervene: racism, social inheritance, false beliefs, the type of personality of each person, etc.
