An
illusory correlation is formed when a person perceives an association between two variables (e.g., social group membership and some observed behavior) in the absence of objective evidence to warrant an association between them.
and Darley's bystander studies, and stereotype formation: revisiting Hamilton and Gifford's
illusory correlation studies.
The
illusory correlation bias occurs when two economic series appear to have an extremely tight statistical relationship when there is little or no theoretical link between the two variables.
Illusory correlation and the maintenance of stereotypic beliefs.
finding appears to be a clear example of a spurious correlation (otherwise known as
illusory correlation or the "lurking variable"), a situation in which two otherwise unrelated variables are correlated because each is related to a third unmeasured variable.
[21] Simply put, the "
illusory correlation" so harped on by the denialists is an illusion of their own invention.
Hamilton & Gifford (1976; Study 1) developed the now familiar paradigm to demonstrate the
illusory correlation effect in social perception.
This false attribution of the results of therapy, called the
illusory correlation bias, is very resistant to contradictory data from better information sources, such as clinical trials.[4] In other words, clinical experience is given undue preeminence over research experience.
Research repeatedly has indicated that people operate under a number of cognitive biases and information processing limitations such as
illusory correlation, cognitive overload, and overconfidence.
As our minds begin to rely on the cognitive bias of
illusory correlations, they begin to develop the foundations for enduring stereotypes.