What is a Coincidence?

I have written before about the human need to impose patterns on the world and our lives. The idea of coincidence is a very good example of this. This tendency to see patterns was an evolutionary advantage to us when we lived in the wild. For example, a tree or bush rustling could be a breeze but it could be a sabre tooth tiger. If we took notice of it and ran, and it turned out to be a breeze, it would not inconvenience us, but if we ignored it and it turned out to be a sabre tooth tiger we would end up dead. So, it made sense to look for patterns in everything and that has stayed with us even if sabre tooth tiger attacks are now much rarer!

A coincidence can be any two unrelated events. In a world of billions of different events every day the potential of two events seeming to be coincidental is actually quite high. The important element is that they appear to be an improbable conjunction of those events. For example, you think of a friend for the first time in a while and they suddenly message you. Your brain immediately connects the two events but ignores the many hundreds of times that you thought of that same friend and they didn’t message you. This connection is seen by your pattern seeking brain as profound and important,  a process known as confirmation bias. The psychologist Carl Jung saw this as an expression of your subconscious mind and called this phenomenon synchronicity. To him it simply reflected what was going on in your life and what you considered to be important in some way.

So, next time you see a coincidence, however improbable and therefore significant it may seem, remember that it is your brain playing tricks on you within the random chaos that is everyday life. However, don’t ignore the underlying message as that is what it actually wants you to concentrate on.