We all know what superstition is and many even have superstitious rituals, but what is superstition according to science?
Superstition is actually a side effect of the ability to learn. Anything that can relate events is vulnerable to superstition at some level.
- According to Rotter (1966).
- If a person thinks that what he gets from his behavior is beyond his control (unpredictable.
- Destiny.
- Other powers.
- Luck?).
- Then he has a belief or expectation of external control.
- Theorists believe that superstitious driving can develop when someone is exposed to uncontrollable situations.
- On the other hand.
- We know that it is impossible to control everything that happens around us.
In this sense, the human being has evolved and acquired skills that allow him to survive in this unpredictable world, so, to some extent, we all have beliefs and illusions that allow us to feel that we are in control of our own existence.
Hitting the wood, crossing your fingers, avoiding passing under a ladder, or having a rabbit’s foot as an amulet can serve your brain, except for differences, such as candy for a child. Kids love candy. In fact, they are often used as reinforcements and you don’t even know what exactly they are, the same goes for superstitious rituals.
Many people have amulets or rituals that help them do things better and can even increase their motivation to succeed or their self-confidence.
Superstitious personal thinking (PSP) would give a name to the trend in which we have to think in a way that allows us to prepare ourselves to defend ourselves from disappointments, disappointments and problems. This style of thought is part of the constructive thinking defined by Epstein. (1998).
In this sense, self-confidence is decisive, so any factor, even the irrational one, will increase the chances of survival, after all, to affirm that superstition can be adaptive, however crazy it may seem, remains true in many cases.
In these experimental examples, individuals were made to believe that their behavior had improved, but, for example, in the case of Koichi Ono’s study, superstitious driving is by no means due to accidental reinforcement. The hypothesis that lack of control leads humans to behave in a superstitious way is confirmed in Helena Matute’s experiment.
Based on Skinner’s work with pigeons, he used experimental cameras that had three levers and a panel on which the score was recorded. Twenty people were invited to try to accumulate as many points as possible, but they were not asked to perform a specific behavior.
Did the team have to deliver the booster? Every time a certain period of time passed, without any action being required, what happened was that many participants showed superstitious behavior every time they won a point, we even jumped on the roof thinking that way it would get more points.
It used the presentation of aversive stimulus on the computer, in this case it was an uncomfortable noise programmed to disappear after a while, the participants were divided into two groups. In the first group, individuals were asked to try to stop the sound with the computer keys and explained to members of the second group that, no matter what they did, they could not control the sound.
The results were different: the people in the first group created a driving model by pressing the keys, these participants developed an illusion of control that led them to practice superstitious behavior, they really believed that if they pressed certain keys on the computer, they could do it. control uncomfortable sound or not. On the other hand, the second group did nothing, as requested.
Our brain is made up of a network of connections that tends to make associations. We associate words, places, sensations, events, etc. When a person misunderstands his behavior as a possible cause, his brain is dominated by the “illusion of control”. When this occurs more generally, by attributing the cause or origin to an external agent, such as a healer, this phenomenon is called “illusion of chance”.
Herstein (1966) argued that this behavior is unlikely to be simply caused by accidental reinforcement; on the other hand, it is assumed that if a person is at least once superstitious, they can maintain this behavior through accidental reinforcement. , rituals such as rain dances or human sacrifices are performed. By way of reflection: can these practices be attributed to the mere accidental reinforcement of individual behaviors or would they be a strategy that would increase our chances of survival?