Reasons why people believe in Superstitions

Michael Jordan likes to wear his “lucky” college gym shorts underneath his Bulls uniform. Tiger Woods always wears a red T-shirt when competing on Sunday. Most of us have our own superstitions even when we know rationally that they cannot work. Superstitions are irrational and nonsensical then why do people still believe in them in 21st century? Why natural selection has not wiped out such beliefs? Actually, superstitions arise naturally from the working of the brain and in certain cases provide an evolutionary advantage as well.

Tendency to falsely link cause and effect, a superstition, can be beneficial, says Kevin Foster, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University. For example, a prehistoric man may falsely associate rustling grass with the approach of a predator and hide. Most of the time, the wind will have caused the sound, but “if a group of lions is coming there’s a huge benefit to not being around,” Foster says.

Superstitions, when shared by a large part of a community, can provide another evolutionary benefit. They may play the role of social glue and bind a community together. Therefore, even when superstitions are nonsensical in themselves, they can play important role by persuading a community to toe the line, hence promoting cohesion. For example, politicians in and public figures in Pakistan usually wear “Taweez” to gain public acceptance, even when they do not believe in it. Therefore, even when superstitions are meaningless in themselves, they can play crucial role in the makeup of society.

Desire to control every aspect of our life, is another reason that we have superstitions. Even when we do not have control over a particular situation, we want to feel that we still have control. So in situations where we feel that we are losing control, we tend to believe that something supernatural or magical can rescue us. This viewpoint is reinforced by a study that found that people living in high-risk areas of Middle East, such as Tel Aviv, are much more likely to carry a lucky charm than other people are. This belief may not change the situation but it keeps the candle of hope burning. In this case, believing a superstition makes us more comfortable than facing the brutal reality.

Superstitions naturally stem from the way our brain works. Human beings have an inclination to infer the cause behind every event. However, errors in identifying the causes of events are inevitable. Such errors in turn lead to superstitions. For example if a black cat passes across someone traveling and then something wrong happens to him, he may deduce that it happened because of the cat. Hence, superstitions result naturally from the process of learning about the world.

In addition to that, our brain has a tendency to look for patterns. It connects dots and creates meanings out of patterns that we see in nature. Therefore, at times we hear meaningful voices in pure noise and identify patterns when there is none. This makes us prone to believe in superstitions and supernatural processes. This can be a reason behind certain superstitions such as belief in ghosts.

As long as the cost of believing a superstition is less than the cost of facing reality, superstitions will continue to exist no matter how meaningless they may appear.

References:

1. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14694-superstitions-evolved-to-help-us-survive.html

2. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327201.400-10-mysteries-of-you-superstition.html

3. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=patternicity-finding-meaningful-patterns&page=2

4. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-09/16/theory-seeks-to-explain-irrational-beliefs.aspx