The brain evolved to predict, and it does so by identifying
patterns. When those patterns break down - as when a hiker
stumbles across an easy chair sitting deep in the woods, as if
dropped from the sky - the brain gropes for something, anything
that makes sense...The urge to find a coherent pattern makes it
more likely that the brain will find one.Experimentally this was
investigated by Drs. Travis Proulx at University of California
and Steven J. Heine at University of British Columbia by
exposing subjects to either an absurd short story or to a more
conventional one. Following this exposure, the students studied
strings of letters with no apparent relationship to one another.
Those students exposed to the absurd story remembered the letter
strings far more accurately than the group that read the other
story. The experimenters attribute that accuracy to their
ability to create new patterns. Here's a link to the study.
Artists have used this technique for years. Courting a sense of
disorientation can often be