coincidence

Coincidence refers to a remarkable concurrence of events without an apparent causal connection. In everyday language, coincidences feel surprising or meaningful, but statistically they can arise from random chance when many events occur in a given period. Distinguishing genuine coincidences from causal relations is a common challenge in reasoning and interpretation.

From a probability standpoint, unlikely events can occur simply because many possibilities exist. For example, in large groups, there are many potential pairings, so shared birthdays or other unexpected alignments occur more often than intuition might suggest even when no underlying link connects the events. Individuals may notice coincidences more readily when they are unusual or personally relevant, which can amplify perceived significance.

Cognition and culture also shape how coincidences are interpreted. People tend to remember striking coincidences and forget routine ones, a bias that feeds the impression of meaningful connection. Biases such as apophenia and clustering illusion contribute to the sense that random patterns reveal hidden order. Some cultural and philosophical traditions describe coincidences as signs or synchronicities, a notion proposed by Carl Jung, though it is not supported as a scientific concept.

In scientific contexts, coincidences can stimulate hypotheses but do not establish causation without further evidence. In everyday life, they can provoke curiosity and storytelling while requiring caution against overinterpretation. Related topics include probability, randomness, luck, apophenia, synchronicity, and clustering illusion.