Superstition

It’s not well-known, but Stevie Wonder is superstitious. Very in fact. The writing’s on the wall, to be honest. He’s a nightmare to work with - the recording studio is always full of rabbits’ feet, he won’t work on Friday the 13th,and he once almost blinded a backing singer by throwing salt over his shoulder.

 

But why do seemingly rational people believe such irrational things? “Magical thinking” is defined as the belief that an object, action or circumstance not logically related to a course of events can influence its outcome. For example, examining the pattern of tea leaves in a cup cannot (given what we know about the principle of causal relations) logically predict the future. I’ll stick to astrology, thank you very much.

 

There’s numerous examples of magical thinking - whether it’s ‘black cats’, ‘lucky’ mascots, ‘walking under ladders’, ‘breaking mirrors’, ‘homeopathy’, ‘organised religion’ or ‘string’ theory. And it’s not just humans who display superstitious behaviour.

 

The first description of superstitious behaviour in animals was documented by psychologist B.F. Skinner in 1948. He kept pigeons in a cage and gave them a few seconds of access to food trays at regular intervals. As long as the intervals were short, the birds began offering up behaviours - like spinning around, rocking from side to side or raising their heads up high. They would do these behaviours, Skinner wrote, "as if there were a causal relation between the behaviour and the presentation of food". After their snack, the pigeons read their horoscopes in the newspapers lining the bottom of the cage.

 

Superstition, however, is an evolutionary surprise. It makes no sense for organisms to believe a specific action influences the future when it can't. And superstitions are not harmless - rituals and avoidances cost an animal in terms of energy lost or squandered opportunities.

 

So what benefit is superstition? Maybe it’s about control – either taking control away from a person, or allowing them to believe they have more control over events than they truly have. In a world that we don’t fully understand perhaps it’s easier to think external factorsgenerally determine outcome – whether you call that ‘luck’, ‘fate’, ‘God’ or ‘Karma’. If I fail, that’s bad ‘luck’. It ‘just wasn’t meant to be’.

 

Although we will always be influenced to some degree by external factors, these interactions are rational and often predictable. “Magical thinking” does us all a disservice, whether by downplaying our efforts or misdirecting them. If you want to pass an exam, it’s easier to bring a lucky rabbit’s foot than to study hard. If you don’t pass, it’s also easier to blame the outcome on ‘fate’ and move on. But that increases the chances of the same bad outcomes reoccurring. Conversely, if you pass the exam, that should reflect your hard work – not how ‘lucky’ you were.

 

If feeling in control scares you, keep reading your horoscope, keep knocking on wood andkeep jumping over the cracks in the pavement.But remember your superstitions are there because you need them, not because they are true. And, if things go well, maybe that’s due to your hard work, not ‘fate’.