Coincidences and unlikely events

What it is

Improbable things are bound to happen somewhere given enough chances, yet we read each one as meaningful.

Related

• Availability heuristic bias
  We remember the striking coincidences and forget the countless non-events.
• Apophenia bias
  Reading meaning into coincidences is apophenia.
• Clustering illusion bias
  Seemingly impossible streaks and coincidences are bound to occur by chance.

Appears in

• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly#24: Coincidence

References

• Wikipedia: Coincidences and unlikely events en.wikipedia.org
• The 99 thinking errors in Rolf Dobelli's The Art of Thinking Clearly en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases en.wikipedia.org
• Wikipedia: Cognitive bias codex en.wikipedia.org

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