Coincidences occur in everyone's life. Some are trivial, like being dealt a flush in poker, but others really grab our attention, like thinking of a friend you have not seen in years only to have them call on the phone moments later.
What these events have in common is our intense desire to explain them, a belief that there is a special reason things happen the way they do. These explanations can range from a lucky rabbit's foot to a psychic link with a friend.
What most people do not know or do not want to believe is that coincidences, even remarkable ones, are not all that surprising. In fact most are inevitable occurrences with no special significance at all.
There are many simple reasons why most people misinterpret coincidences:
We have a poor innate grasp of probability.
We believe that all effects must have deliberate causes.
We easily succumb to selective validation—the tendency to remember only positive correlations and forget the far more numerous misses.
What are the odds of two people sharing the same birthday in a workplace containing nine people? Many people I have spoken with say it must be one in thirty or more. Surprisingly to most people, it is only one in two.
Not knowing this sort of thing has caused many people to conclude that since their experience seemed so unlikely, perhaps they share some special link or that a supernatural force brought them together.
I share the same birthday with my godbrother, Wanrong and he is currently working under my wings right now.
Many interviewed and could have been selected but I chose Wanrong instead. Maybe he had that slight edge among the rest.
But never did I expect we to have shared the same birthday together.
