Superstitions

Have you ever heard the saying that a stopped clock is right twice a day? The same is true for superstition. Occasionally, bad things happen on Friday the 13th. Given that there is no time limit put on the saying “bad luck comes in threes” it will always be true. When the fourth bad thing happens, it is simply the start of the next three-incident sequence. If you “bless” someone when they sneeze, their soul will not leave their body (although it will also not leave their body if you fail to bless them). 

Superstitions generally are low-cost, high-reward activities. The amount of effort it takes to pick up a penny (in case it is lucky) is small versus the unlikely reward of having good luck. The additional effort it takes to walk around the ladder is small compared to the potential benefit of avoiding bad luck (not to mention the fact that exercising caution around construction equipment is generally a good idea). Often our superstitions have been instilled in us since childhood in the form of nursery rhymes and rituals. How many of us remember walking carefully down the sidewalk with the rhyme “step on a crack, break your mother’s back” in our mind?

We are superstitious for good reason. Before science provided answers, we looked for the answers in patterns. Sometimes those patterns helped to feed, shelter, and clothe people. However, superstition becomes problematic when it takes control of what we do, when we do it, and how we do it. Religion is a superstitious activity (often justified by Pascal’s Wager) that many people find comforting, even if it is ultimately not helpful. 

In hunter-gatherer societies, superstition helped people choose which activity to perform and where to perform it to ensure their survival. For example, throughout history, fishing has been a significant source of food. Anglers all know that sometimes they barely get their line in the water before they have a bite. And other times they can sit for hours and wonder if the body of water they are on is devoid of life. When people were reliant on hunting and gathering, they took note of the conditions that led to good catches to improve their odds of success. Since fish are influenced by the weather, there was a grain of truth in the conclusions that ancient fishermen drew. Now, science gives us a far better idea about where and when to look for fish. But even today, you will hear fishermen quote “Wind from the east, fish bite the least” as their excuse for coming home empty-handed. Rarely do they pause to consider the many times they had great success in an easterly wind. 

Believing in superstition has the added benefit of providing the illusion of control in a world where very little is controllable. The confirmation bias, which is “the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values,” can reinforce a superstition. (Though some research had suggested that superstitious behaviour could lead to improvements in athletes’ performance, the authors of this study recently retracted this paper.)

Today, many critically thinking people knock on wood, throw salt over their shoulder, or look for a four-leaf clover. And, for most of us, this is just for fun. However, even people who think critically at times rely on superstitions because they have not considered the source of those superstitions. 

You may be acting in a superstitious manner if:

• You rely on rhymes or sayings to determine the best way or time to do something
• You do, or avoid doing things, without quite knowing why

We’re not suggesting you throw out the rhyme or the superstition. There are probably examples of sophisticated pattern-recognition that make them true. We’re just asking you to ask yourself: What is the source? And does it have any credibility?

For more information, you may wish to read Knock on Wood by Jeffery Rosenthal. 

Discussion: What superstition(s) did you previously believe in and have stopped? What made you stop?