Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness
Apophenia, patternicity, and the experience of meaningful coincidences describe the propensity to perceive meaning in random arrangements, which is known to be linked with paranormal beliefs. Additionally, this trait of combining unrelated elements to create new meanings suggests an association with...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Heliyon |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022005576 |
| _version_ | 1818006581392965632 |
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| author | Christian Rominger Andreas Fink Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan Günter Schulter Elisabeth M. Weiss Ilona Papousek |
| author_facet | Christian Rominger Andreas Fink Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan Günter Schulter Elisabeth M. Weiss Ilona Papousek |
| author_sort | Christian Rominger |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Apophenia, patternicity, and the experience of meaningful coincidences describe the propensity to perceive meaning in random arrangements, which is known to be linked with paranormal beliefs. Additionally, this trait of combining unrelated elements to create new meanings suggests an association with creativity. However, studies indicating a relationship between creativity and apophenia are scarce. To gain empirical evidence, the present study (n = 77) assessed the propensity to experience meaningful patterns in random arrangements by means of a questionnaire (coincidence questionnaire) and a behavioral measure. The applied figural association task allows to reliably differentiate between the perception of idiosyncratic/unique and intersubjective meaningful/non-unique patterns. Self-rated creative ideation behavior and paranormal beliefs were positively associated with the subjectively rated frequency of meaningful coincidences. Furthermore, participants high in both creative ideation behavior and paranormal beliefs perceived a higher number of non-unique meanings in the figural association task. Yet, participants high in paranormal beliefs additionally perceived a higher number of unique meanings. This divergence in findings suggests that creative ideation behavior and paranormal belief are associated with the perception of partly different meanings in random arrangements. In paranormal believers, this pattern of findings may indicate a lower threshold to detect meaning in meaninglessness, leading to more idiosyncratic/unique perceptions. Altogether, slight reductions of this threshold to detect meaningfulness may increase a persons’ creativity; however, excessive pattern recognition may facilitate paranormal beliefs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:03:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c2b6720871d04d189a84fd7594a71a44 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2405-8440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T05:03:58Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Heliyon |
| spelling | doaj.art-c2b6720871d04d189a84fd7594a71a442022-12-22T02:10:50ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402022-04-0184e09269Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomnessChristian Rominger0Andreas Fink1Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan2Günter Schulter3Elisabeth M. Weiss4Ilona Papousek5Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Austria; Corresponding author.Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, AustriaInstitute of Psychology, University of Graz, AustriaInstitute of Psychology, University of Graz, AustriaInstitute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, AustriaInstitute of Psychology, University of Graz, AustriaApophenia, patternicity, and the experience of meaningful coincidences describe the propensity to perceive meaning in random arrangements, which is known to be linked with paranormal beliefs. Additionally, this trait of combining unrelated elements to create new meanings suggests an association with creativity. However, studies indicating a relationship between creativity and apophenia are scarce. To gain empirical evidence, the present study (n = 77) assessed the propensity to experience meaningful patterns in random arrangements by means of a questionnaire (coincidence questionnaire) and a behavioral measure. The applied figural association task allows to reliably differentiate between the perception of idiosyncratic/unique and intersubjective meaningful/non-unique patterns. Self-rated creative ideation behavior and paranormal beliefs were positively associated with the subjectively rated frequency of meaningful coincidences. Furthermore, participants high in both creative ideation behavior and paranormal beliefs perceived a higher number of non-unique meanings in the figural association task. Yet, participants high in paranormal beliefs additionally perceived a higher number of unique meanings. This divergence in findings suggests that creative ideation behavior and paranormal belief are associated with the perception of partly different meanings in random arrangements. In paranormal believers, this pattern of findings may indicate a lower threshold to detect meaning in meaninglessness, leading to more idiosyncratic/unique perceptions. Altogether, slight reductions of this threshold to detect meaningfulness may increase a persons’ creativity; however, excessive pattern recognition may facilitate paranormal beliefs.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022005576PareidoliasPatternicityInkblotRorschachMeaningful coincidences |
| spellingShingle | Christian Rominger Andreas Fink Corinna M. Perchtold-Stefan Günter Schulter Elisabeth M. Weiss Ilona Papousek Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness Heliyon Pareidolias Patternicity Inkblot Rorschach Meaningful coincidences |
| title | Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| title_full | Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| title_fullStr | Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| title_short | Creative, yet not unique? Paranormal belief, but not self-rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| title_sort | creative yet not unique paranormal belief but not self rated creative ideation behavior is associated with a higher propensity to perceive unique meanings in randomness |
| topic | Pareidolias Patternicity Inkblot Rorschach Meaningful coincidences |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022005576 |
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