Ever looked up at the sky and noticed shapes in the clouds? Perhaps you’ve seen a tree that looked a bit like someone you know, or spotted a coincidental pattern between events that have occurred in your life?
Our brains naturally compel us to notice patterns, and even find patterns in things that aren’t connected. Pattern-seeking behaviour was once key to our survival, and it still forms an integral part of modern life too. However, it does also have some drawbacks.
The Evolutionary Roots of Pattern-Seeking
Homo sapiens, the modern species of humans, first evolved from a common ancestor around 300,000 years ago. This evolution involved changes to skull shape and brain size, which allowed our ancestors to survive in a challenging world. Since then, life has changed a lot, but many of our brain functions, which evolved as a way to increase survival, are still relevant today.
Early humans developed pattern recognition as a survival tool, with sounds or shapes or predators or edible food letting us know of possible danger or rewards. Other patterns include the weather and the behaviour of other humans, which would have all had an impact on our survival. Because of the risks involved in missing these patterns, our brains had a natural bias towards spotting patterns, even if they weren’t necessarily there.
One of the most important benefits of pattern recognition is our ability to recognise faces and communicate. Pareidolia, the phenomenon of perceiving a pattern as a face, was crucial for identifying threats or allies. It’s our ability to communicate with each other and cooperate that has led humanity from the plains of Africa to settle and prosper all over the world. Being able to recognise other members of our community and share ideas has helped humans go from surviving to thriving.
How the Brain Creates Patterns
The brain is an incredibly complex organ, of which science is constantly learning and discovering new things. Messages are sent through the brain between neurons, which are responsible for transmitting signals to other areas of the body, enabling us to think, feel, and react to the world around us.
Neurons communicate with each other through synapse, and when neurons fire together regularly, the connection between them strengthen in a process known as synaptic plasticity. This forms neural pathways, which is how our brain creates patterns of activity that relate to specific information or tasks.
For example, if you hear a ringing bell each time before your food is served every day, eventually, the sound of the bell ringing will cause you to feel hungry, even if it’s not mealtime.
This ability to recognise patterns is an integral part of how we learn and adapt to our changing environments. By recognising patterns in information around us, we can predict future events and make better-informed decisions that improve our lives.
Pattern recognition also helps us to reduce the cognitive load on the brain. It can essentially make choices on autopilot, without the need for a conscious decision-making process. Once a pattern has been identified, it’s often strengthened by confirmation bias.
Patterns All Around Us
Much of our day-to-day lives is often centred around pattern recognition, even when we don’t realise it. Patterns provide a sense of predictability and order to a world that is often chaotic and difficult to understand. Even if they’re not necessarily true, patterns can provide some relief from anxiety over our seemingly random and meaningless existence.
Patterns are used in many other areas of our lives too. Every time you see someone, you likely give them a greeting, often the same greeting you use every day. In other areas, patterns are used in music, art and literature to create meaning and evoke emotions. We even see patterns while playing games like bingo. Bingo patterns provide a way for players to win prizes, marking off their bingo ticket in a specific pattern.
It's pattern-seeking behaviour that gave rise to our need to create stories, myths and legends. Many of these ancient stories are rooted in our explanation of random events or characteristics. For example, a plague of insects could be explained as a curse from a god rather than a random event.
The concept of astrology is another interesting example of pattern-seeking behaviour that looks to assign meaning to our existence. By studying the movement of planets and their orbits around the Sun, we can infer meaning in our own lives. Pattern recognition means we attach causation between things even if there’s no evidence of a link between them.
The Drawback of Pattern-Seeking Behaviour
As mentioned above, our brain’s capability to recognise patterns, even when they’re not there, can lead us to create explanations and stories around random events. This often leads to superstition such as rituals, charms and believing that the movement of the planets affects our mood. While this isn’t usually an issue, some superstitions may become dangerous or harmful if they prevent someone from getting the help they need. For example, a person believing that a lucky charm keeps them safe might be less careful in general about present dangers.
Pattern recognition can also lead us to connect unrelated events into conspiracy theories. While there are a lot of terrible events happening in the world, some people are too eager to see patterns between them, leading them to spread false narratives and information that isn’t supported by real evidence. It’s easy for our brains to link two random events that show correlation, even if there is no evidence of causation.
Randomness can also be misinterpreted, with random sequences seen as patterns or streaks. This is demonstrated in the gambler’s fallacy, where gamblers can believe that a losing streak means a win is coming up soon. However, the reality is that each outcome in a game of chance is truly random, and streaks aren’t examples of true patterns.
Final Thoughts
While pattern-seeking behaviour created our ability to learn, adapt and communicate, helping humans prosper and thrive all over the world, it has its drawbacks too. Not every pattern we see is a true pattern, and it’s important to consider all evidence before making conclusions and assuming intent.
