superstitious behavior

Superstitious, me? You’re welcome…

One of the definitions of superstition by the Michaelis dictionary is:

An unfounded or vain omen derived from accidents or merely fortuitous circumstances.

I think there is no way not to identify with this theme. How many of us have heard or even believed that walking under stairs is bad luck? And that a broom behind the door expels unwanted visitors? Or even that the poor black kitten, if he crosses our path, will bring us bad luck?

Who hasn’t already done the famous jumps at New Year’s Eve and then said: “Oh, I’m not superstitious, but it might work, right?”. Or did he utter the famous phrase “it only happens to me”, in an emphatic tone, after an unpleasant event?

These are some of the superstitions widespread in our society. What many people don’t know is that behavioral psychology is also concerned with the study of superstitious behavior.

Superstitious behavior occurs when a response is contiguous to a given stimulus. This means that there is no relationship of continuity between such a stimulus and such a response.

Facilitating. What happens is that we attribute to a certain stimulus in our environment a response that has nothing to do with it.

With the broom behind the door, for example. Has anyone counted the time it takes for this “magic” to work? Does the visitor not leave simply because he would leave?

Maybe we can even think of another way. If a certain individual puts the broom behind the door to expel a visitor, it is because he is already tired of it, therefore, he may start to emit behaviors such as yawning, responding without much enthusiasm, not continuing the subject of the conversation, etc. And, acting like this, the visit will probably leave sooner. Do you agree?

Read Also: Difference between self-esteem, self-confidence and self-compassion

What happens is that this same individual who put the broom behind the door also emitted other behaviors, even if he didn’t realize it. However, when the visit leaves, he attributes the fact to a simple broom behind the door. Curious, huh?

There are several experiments carried out in the laboratory that demonstrate the installation and maintenance of these superstitious behaviors even in animals. Just search any online search engine and they will be found!

Anyway, I don’t think being superstitious is a problem as long as it doesn’t get in the way of our everyday life. And between us, who doesn’t throw the first stone! However, it is good not to rely only on luck to achieve what we want.

Sometimes thinking a little about the real cause and effect relationships that control our behavior can be the key to change!

Text: Lázaro Castro