Do you have a lucky pen that you swear by when taking exams? Or perhaps a certain color you wear when you really need something to go your way? Or maybe, on the flip side, a certain route you avoid walking because you’ve seemingly had bad luck every time you’ve walked that way? If you do any of these things in any variation, you are superstitious. In this day and era of mass information and an emphasis on factual knowledge(aka science), you may wonder why you feel a certain way or believe in a certain thing despite there not being any sort of proof for it. To this, Erol Akçay, a theoretical biologist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the spread of superstitions, states, “I’m going to be a little radical—I think we are all basically superstitious all the time.” Now, if this is something almost everyone does or at least believes in, the real question is why?
One possible explanation is that having superstitious beliefs can help reduce anxiety or stress about something. In a study conducted by researchers at the University of Singapore, participants were assigned a very stress-inducing task of interviewing or performing math problems in front of a panel of judges. Some of the participants were given a pen and were told that it had proven “lucky” to others in the past. Those who had received the “lucky” pen reported feeling less stressed and actually performed better.
Continuing with the scientific explanations, another reason why we believe in superstitions is because fear is learned. A lot of superstitions are based on fear of the unknown. Having a fear of the unknown is natural, as it was needed for survival in the past. Having a fear of something causes you to be more alert and vigilant, and so when you believe in superstition, you are, in a way, trying to justify your fear and mitigate risks. For example, if you wear a red shirt on the day of an important exam because you believe that shirt is lucky, you are trying to mitigate the risk, which is the exam, by putting your trust in your shirt to take care of the issue even though there is no logical correlation between your shirt and your exam results. However, having this superstition puts you at ease, which might help you perform better on your exam.
Another explanation of this phenomenon comes from a more cultural lens. One of the greatest ways information was passed down from generation to generation in the past was verbal communication. This communication was subject to a person’s own beliefs, societal beliefs, and the circumstances of that person’s life. For this reason, it makes sense that some superstitions exist today because they have been passed down from the past. For example, a lot of people dislike the number 13 as it is associated with bad luck. While there is no scientific evidence for this, we see that our society still holds this superstition as many buildings are built without a 13th floor, many numbered streets skip the number 13, and we all still dread Friday the 13th. Like this example, a lot of people believe in different superstitions because of their cultural background, simply because it was based on them as a part of their culture.
Based on all of this, it is completely natural and normal for you to believe in superstitions. There are scientific benefits to having these beliefs, but just ensure that these superstitions instill too much fear in you.
