Wear that lucky shirt! It’s good to be superstitious sometimes

From choosing a lucky colored shirt for date night to eating curd-sugar before an exam, superstitions are intertwined in daily life. A study details why people believe in superstitions, and most importantly, why people engage in these superstitious behaviors even when they know they are not based on science.

The study focused on whether people could also tell when something happened because of their actions, and when it happened by chance. It also sheds light on the cognitive roots of superstitions, showing that the brain’s understanding of cause and effect plays a key role in this phenomenon.

Also read: Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky? Find out the tradition on this anti-superstition day

cause and effect

Cause-and-effect relationships are integral to the understanding of superstitious behavior. From the beginning people learned about the cause-and-effect relationship, an event leading to an outcome. It is as primal as a baby crying to get its mother’s attention. This ability to understand cause and effect becomes more developed with age, which helps us understand the complex world around us. This ability to see relationships between causes and effects is a fundamental part of human thinking, influencing everything from planning to emotional regulation.

But this ability to test and judge is not always good. Sometimes, people assume and mistakenly believe that their actions had consequences when they actually did not. For example, exams go well when you write with your lucky pen. But here other factors also play a role like exam preparation, study material and difficulty of question paper. So to think that the pen is solely responsible for a good exam is just a coincidence. Possibly once it showed beneficial results, people became confident that it might work again.

This tendency to consider coincidence as cause and effect is at the root of superstitions. This suggests that superstitious behavior occurs because often one cannot tell whether their actions actually caused something to happen, or whether it simply happened by chance.

Also read: Photos: These strange superstitions from around the world will give you goosebumps

increases self-confidence

Research has also shown that engaging in superstitious behavior can feel comfortable and relaxing, which increases self-confidence. It helps reduce anxiety and provides a feeling of calm reassurance. Superstition gives people a sense of control over uncertain situations, making them feel more secure, even if actions have no real effect. So in a way, everyone benefits from indulging in harmless superstitions sometimes.