Insecure Minds Want Control, Get It Through Schizoid Logic

It turns out that the less control a person feels, the more likely they are to see patterns or make connections that don't exist.

"It's true that having control is a big thing for most people," said researcher Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University.

Overall, the researchers found that the subjects who were made to feel less control perceived significantly more illusory patterns or connections.

Insecure Minds Wired for Pattern-Finding by Larry O'Hanlon

The less control a person feels, the more they withdraw into themselves.

At this point, they participate in schizoid logic, where instead of cause->effect judgment, they assume that all actions are effects whose cause is directly related to them personally.

As a result, they see patterns that aren't there -- they are destabilized, and assuming any pattern that does exist relates to them, and so you get this paranoid behavior.