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Volume 11: Number 4: Article 4
Motivation and Meaningful Coincidence: A Further Examination of Synchronicity
Thomas C. Rowe, Jessica M. Lemke, Eric P. Pitsch, and Douglas B. Henderson,
College of Letters & Science, Dept. of Psychology, University of
Wisconsin - Stevens Point, WI 54481-3897
Male and female, mostly Freshman college students were paired at random,
placed in one of three motivational conditions, and asked to discover
as many life coincidences as possible in a 45 minute time period. The
resulting coincidences were coded by category of event and compared
with a larger cohort sample of students to determine the rate of statistically
unusual coincidences. It was discovered that while motivational set
affected the total number of coincidences found, the rate of unusual
coincidences was independent of motivation. The results are discussed
in terms of future research for measuring synchronicity in a population
of reunited birth relatives.
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