Page 64 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

64 Connecting with Coincidence

The 5 Most Common

Coincidences:

Two statistical approaches with
overlapping outcomes

Dr. Bernie Beitman, MD

Host of Connecting with Coincidence on the
XZBN broadcast network.

To describe and classify is often the first step in
The researchers also looked at the tone of the educational path.
developing a new science. Like the early
stories and found that more people described • I think about someone and then that person
botanists, I am developing a taxonomy for
their coincidences using negative language unexpectedly drops by my house or office,
coincidences. Early botanists noticed
(32%) or neutral language (41%) than positive or passes me in the hall or street.
similarities and differences among plants and
language (25%). This finding is unexpected • I experience strong emotions or physical
categorized them; I’ve noticed the similarities
because synchronicities are generally sensations that were simultaneously
and differences between the coincidental flora
considered to be positive experiences. experienced at a distance by someone I love.
and fauna in the forest of daily life.
• After experiencing meaningful coincidence,
Weird Coincidence Survey (WCS) I analyze the meaning of my experience.
University of Cambridge Data
My research approached the question in a In both my analysis and the analysis of stories
David Spiegelhalter at the University of
different way. While Spiegelhalter asked submitted to Spiegelhalter, coincidences
Cambridge collected 4,470 coincidences; Julie
participants to report their stories, I asked involving external media are relatively common.
Beck reported the results of an analysis of these
participants to rate the frequency of common Though there are some similarities, it is
stories in The Atlantic. A solid 58% of the interesting that some different categories grew
coincidences “included words related to family coincidences. The list of common coincidences
was gleaned from a much longer group of out of the two different approaches.
or loved ones, indicating that people are more
possibilities. (The 12 items of the WCS can be I developed my categories through an
likely to notice coincidences involving people
found on my website: coincider.com. You can extensive literature review and statistical
closest to them.”
take the survey to see how sensitive to winnowing. Quid analyzed the content of
coincidences you are.) voluntarily submitted stories to develop its
The five most common types of coincidences in
categories.
this analysis were:
From 1551 respondents to the website The Quid analysis includes categories of
marriage- and hospital-related coincidences,
• Sharing a birthday with someone (11%) of the WCS, the most common which I did not include in my survey. I include
• Connections involving books, TV, radio, or coincidences were:
categories Quid does not, such as coincidences
the news (10%)
related to careers and the reflection of one’s
• Vacation-related coincidences (6.1%) • I think of a question only to have it answered thoughts in the external environment.
• Meeting people in transit—while walking by an external source (i.e. radio, TV, or other As we develop the science of
around, in airports, or on public people) before I can ask it. Coincidence Studies, ongoing data analyses like
transportation (6%) • I think of an idea and hear or see it on the these will sharpen the categorization of the
• Coincidences related to marriage or in-laws radio, TV, or Internet. coincidences.
(5.3%) • I think of calling someone, only to have that
person unexpectedly call me. For more information on Dr. Beitman, MD.
Spiegelhalter is a statistician who believes that • I advance in my work/career/education by visit his website at http://coincider.com/.
coincidences are best understood as interesting being in the right place at the right time.
examples of the laws of probability at work. For
example, the probability of two people having In descending order of frequency, the
the same birthday is 1/365, which means that if rest of the items lined up like this:
you tell 365 people when your birthday is, you
are very likely to find at least one person who
• I need something, and the need is then met
shares the same birthday.
without my having to do anything.
• I am introduced to people who unexpectedly
Vacation-related coincidences tend to involve
further my work/career.
unexpectedly running into someone you know.
• I run into a friend in an out-of-the-way place.
Since you probably know a great many people
• When my phone rings, I know who is calling
and you are part of a specific socio-economic
without checking the screen or using
group that is likely to take vacations in the same
personalized ring tones.
places, the probability of running into someone
• Meaningful coincidence helps determine my
you know is also fairly high.