Superstition
From RationalWiki
The word 'superstition' comes from the Latin: ‘superstitio’ , or ’standing over’, which can imply a force standing over one’s actions or perhaps guiding one beyond one’s control. Control and gaining control over a situation, is something that is often raised in the matter of superstitious beliefs.
Superstition is defined in one paper by drawing upon the American Heritage Dictionary as ‘beliefs that are inconsistent with the known laws of nature or with what is generally considered rational in a society’ (Kramer & Block, 2007); but is also discussed as ‘a causation between behaviour and outcome when none actually exists’ by Rudski and Edwards (2007) and even more broadly as ‘irrational practices’ (Jahoda, 1970).
Some early research into superstition included the popular work by Skinner (1947) on pigeons. According to Skinner, the 'accidental pairing of a random act of the pigeon was enough to reinforce these idiosyncratic behaviours...the birds were dancing around the chamber as if their movements caused the operation of the feeder'. (Vyse, 1997, p.71) This involves the psychological concepts of discriminative stimulus and partial reinforcement - the ‘pigeon’ is doing what works for them, because it worked before or maybe they’ve seen it happen with others who succeeded.
Partial reinforcement with lucky charms or ritualistic behaviour is seen in many scenarios beyond the humble examination room - some of the more popularly known include sporting rituals - a fixed sequence of actions like how you put on your batting gloves (e.g., in the case of baseball player Nomar Garciaparra), or wearing ‘lucky gear’. It even extends to group mentality with people watching the game. If the ‘lucky’ ritual precedes success long enough, failure to execute it will distress and actually impede your performance.
A broad definition is often favoured; defining it as ‘wrong ideas about reality‘ can cover not only self-created by an individual (like that of a dancing pigeon) but also transmitted culturally, or, as some try to argue in more recent studies, genetically inherited.
