October 31, 2022 – Airports usually exclude Gate 13. Some buildings go beyond the 13th floor. And Friday the thirteenth is not known as a lucky day.
Fear of the number 13 – a superstition with a complex name – triskaidekaphobia. The idea that the number 13 is unlucky does not make sense of course, and for most people, any concern about the number does not amount to a phobia. However, many people give the figure a hidden (or overt) power over their actions.
What about broken mirrors? black cats? I walk under the stairs? Whether we believe in superstitions or not, they can influence behavior. Where do superstitions come from and how can they have all this power in our lives?
Stuart Weiss, Ph.D., psychologist, and author of Belief in Witchcraft: The Psychology of Mythwinner of the William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association.
And while there is no scientific evidence to show that the number 13 is unlucky or somehow associated with more mishaps, common superstitions are just as common and pervasive. “Even the business world is aware of this myth and would prefer not to engage with it,” says Vyse.
He points out that many superstitions are ancient in origin and are associated with supernatural or paranormal activity. It is sometimes associated with religious or anti-religious activities, and the word “myth” is often used as an insult.
Like it or not, superstitions simply become part of a culture that gets passed on from one person to another “no matter how hard you try to resist them,” says Neil Dagnall, PhD, a cognitive psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. And this cultural adoption of superstitions means they have the power to influence our thinking and, in extreme cases, behavior, he says.
Bad omen and fortune charm
Dagnall says that personal superstitions about a black cat crossing your path as an ominous sign or a lucky charm that brings good luck can also arise from personal experience. When people associate two unrelated events – like winning a sporting event while wearing a certain shirt or pair of socks – “Once they see that link, it can be very hard to stop, because it’s spontaneous and unconscious,” he says.
This illusion is an example of psychology’s dual process theory, popularized by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., as “fast and slow thinking.” Fables arise from a quick and intuitive thought process, rather than deliberate critical thinking. There may even be a file evolutionary benefit To develop and maintain myths based on making intuitive connections. The cost of following a pseudo-myth is usually very low, but the spin-offs that arise from the correct association of two seemingly unrelated events can be high enough to ensure that the habit is preserved in the human psyche.
Whatever their origin, in most cases superstitions are a kind of coping mechanism for situations in which we want something good to happen – or to prevent something bad from happening – but we have no control over. Acting on a myth can help us deal with anxiety associated with a lack of control.
Worrying about what comes next
“There is no such thing as magic, it doesn’t work in any real way, but the illusion of control helps us deal with anxiety,” Vyse says. That’s why many myths in sports tend to revolve around high-stakes individual events, such as free throws in basketball or penalty kicks in football.
While some people are true believers and cannot be persuaded that their superstitions have no basis in reality, even those who know they are not real often indulge themselves anyway and gain the same anxiety-reducing benefits. “They tend to say they don’t want to take a risk,” says Fizzy, even when they realize it’s ridiculous.
In medicine, we see what is known as placebo effect When people who have been given a substance that has no therapeutic value still benefit from it and feel better.
The opposite also happens.
Sometimes, people hold the false belief that the interference will cause harm. They feel worse after taking a placebo even when there is no therapeutic effect, yet they still have negative side effects. This is called nocebo . effectIt is the belief in the treatment, not the intervention itself, that causes the harm, a phenomenon that is sometimes overlooked in the safety of the drug.
If our minds are so powerful that they can help us feel better without medication or feel worse after taking a dummy treatment just because we think so, can we use those same thoughts to our advantage?
In Germany, researchers told a group of golfers that they had a lucky ball. Golfers tried 10 short strokes as part of study. Those who were prepared to believe their ball was lucky made 65% of their shots. A second group of golfers who were not told their ball was lucky, only made 48% of their shot.
But when researchers in the United States tried Copy this studyThey were unlucky and did not find a difference between the two groups. “We’re left with a situation where the effect appears plausible, but the evidence is unclear,” Vyse says.
Vyse and Dagnall say that in the vast majority of cases, superstitions are generally harmless, and they won’t even bother trying to talk to anyone about them. But in some cases, superstitions can cause so much fear and anxiety that it becomes a disabling phobia or crosses the line into obsessive-compulsive disorder. In these situations, more direct psychological help is needed, with an emphasis on trying to break the false link between cause and effect. “Every day, you need to try to engage in critical thinking, not intuitive thinking,” Dagnall says. But this is not always easy. He admits that “facing intuitive feelings can cause more anxiety.”
Confirmation bias also plays a large role in reinforcing myths, Vyse says. People tend to remember times when a superstition arose. Therefore, to overcome it, you need to take a closer look at your history, to identify all the times when you were unsuccessful and did not remember or think about it. “Take a closer look and gradually develop a history of bad things that don’t happen.”
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