law of common fate
- noun
- /lɔː ʌv ˈkɒmən feɪt/
- Specialized
:
ley del destino común
- When birds fly in a V-formation, the law of common fate leads us to perceive them as a single group.
Examples
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Designers use the law of common fate to help users perceive moving objects as related on digital interfaces.
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According to the law of common fate, cars moving together in a convoy appear as a unified collection rather than separate vehicles.
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The law of common fate helps us understand how we perceive groups.
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According to the law of common fate, we see moving objects as a unit.
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According to the law of common fate, elements moving together in the same direction are seen as a group.
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In graphic design, the law of common fate is used to ensure that moving elements are perceived as related.
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When fish swim together in a school, the law of common fate causes viewers to see them as a cohesive unit.
Synonyms
1
8.1
Objects that move the same way are seen as one group
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from familiar words ('law', 'common', 'fate') and 'common fate' literally suggests things sharing a destiny, so there is a partial cue to a general idea of shared behavior. However, the specific Gestalt-psychology sense — that elements moving together are perceived as a group — is a specialized, metaphorical extension of 'fate' and not reliably derivable by a B1 learner without domain exposure.
Etymology
The phrase law of common fate comes from a simple idea about how we see things: when items move the same way, our eyes end up seeing them as one, so common means 'same' and fate means 'end up together'. So it explains why moving items like birds in a V or cars in a convoy appear as a single 'group'.