I’m writing a story where a group of paranormal investigators suspect that a supernatural occurrence (which is not caused by the Fae) might be. I’m asking if there’s anyway that a supernatural occurrence, characterized by unnatural silence during the day and unnatural darkness and loud creaks during the night could be confused for being caused by the Fae. Thanks for helping out!
Generally people who know about the Folk tend to attribute most if not all supernatural occurrences to them in one way or another. It's one of those rather peculiar things that humans do.
It's partially the fault of confirmation bias, where people who believe that the Folk are out to get them (regardless of whether or not they are correct) tend to search for, interpret, and favor or recall information and evidence that supports their views or values (or fears).
However, in this case it is fed into by apophenia, which is a tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. To a certain degree, apophenia can be considered a perfectly normal brain function, and in some individuals can even be an effective tool for creativity or problem solving, but taken to an extreme it is considered a psychiatric dysfunction which can cause people to perceive hostile patterns in ordinary actions.
I am not suggesting that people are suffering from psychiatric dysfunction; rather I am saying that there is a rather strong pattern of people who are governed by fear and superstition to start to seek out patterns and evidence to support their worldviews, to the point where they are often willing to seek out and attribute patterns and connections that either aren't relevant or aren't even real to the thing that they fear.
There are many instances in both folklore and documented historical accounts of disasters and inconveniences being attributed to all sorts of supposed malevolent beings. "My crops have failed despite ideal conditions and I found white stones in strange patterns by the river, so that means it MUST be a faery curse!" This sort of example often ignores other available evidence such as the that farmer's crops were diseased the previous year and crop diseases linger in the soil afterward. The white stones could easily be attributed to children playing near that stretch of river, or creatures (probably corvids) who are going about their business. There is very little logical reason to attribute the disaster to the Fae, and yet a few unrelated occurrences that seem mystical or strange enough are more than enough for someone already paranoid to convince themselves that it's definitely the Fae.
We see this same phenomenon happen with witches too, or demons, or ghosts, or angry gods. Certainly if the Fae or any of the others exist in any capacity it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that they might be the cause of such things here and there. We do have folktales that provide examples of what sorts of circumstances might occur for such people who find that the supernatural is angry with them and how they deal with it (or suffer from it) and often what happened to cause it.
But the sheer range and volume of accounts of unfortunate incidents being attributed to the supernatural, especially when other evidence to provide better explanations and solutions is available, borders on the absurd.
It's not at all a leap to conclude that if perfectly ordinary circumstances and happenings can be wildly and vehemently attributed to the Fae with very little logical or conclusive evidence, then so can actual supernatural events.
Yes, even by professional "paranormal investigators". In fact, I would generally count such persons as being more susceptible to misattribution than most due to the fact that they're actively searching for answers. That's entirely normal. When the Scientific Method is working correctly you will find that scientists are quite often wrong, yet eventually through careful experimentation and analysis they are able to continuously revise their theories to be more accurate. Naturally, this doesn't happen nearly as often as anyone would like. Stubbornness, lack of vital information, a paradigm that hides certain possibilities, something unable to be measured or tested...there are a lot of reasons they might persist in an incorrect conclusion. Its rarely malice, just a facet of life.
Addendum: This really does not cover the many many incidents where such persecution of individuals accused of the supernatural, witchcraft, or magic was actually done out of malice. That topic is much longer and there are entire libraries about it.
