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Post #10: Superstitions across the world

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Post #10: Superstitions across the world

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This quick video shows superstitions believed in different countries. In Russia it is believed that if a bird poops on the roof of a house the owner will become rich, but in France if you step in poop with your right foot you will have bad luck. The video shows no facts or evidence and doesn't provide any referencing from where they got their information. Superstitions are an example of the unexplained. We don't actually know where they come from, even though most are based off of religion stories. Most superstitions are so old we will never be able to provide actual evidence of them occuring or how they came into existence.

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If you open an umbrella indoors it will bring bad luck. Umbrellas used to be for protection from the sun, and to also ward off spirits who may cause harm. If you open the umbrella inside it is thought to offend the god of the sun. This is an example of agenticity because it relates to the sun god. There is no proof of this superstition. It's an emotional attachment because people within this religion are scared of offending the gods and obtaining bad luck for it.

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The author of this article writes about a study done with students and the difference of performances done when they are told a good superstition like break a leg versus when they're not. It was shown that the students who were told break a leg or I'll cross my fingers for you, etc. performed a lot better than the others and felt a lot more confident. This is an example of confusion of correlation with causation. The students who performed better believed they had good luck on their side. It boosted their confidence and made them believe in themselves. Even though this information was from a study the article doesn't provide any links or references from where the study came from.

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The next time you cross your fingers or tell someone to break a leg, you may actually be bringing some luck.

Superstitious ways of bringing good luck are found in cultures around the world, and it turns out they may be ubiquitous for a very good reason: To some extent, superstitions work. New research shows that believing in, say, the power of a good luck charm can actually help improve performance in certain situations, even though the charm and event aren't logically linked.

This is what a team of psychologists at the University of Cologne in Germany report in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science. In a series of experiments employing tasks involving memory and motor skills, the scientists studied the effect of behavior and "object superstitions" - which rely on good luck charms - in college students.

Cross your fingers

The first experiment looked at the influence of the concept of good luck in a test of putting a golf ball. Experimenters handed participants a ball, and those who were told the ball was lucky tended to outperform those who weren't.
In another experiment, participants were given a cube containing tiny balls and a slab with holes. The goal was to get as many balls in the holes as quickly as possible. Again, participants who were told, "I'll cross my fingers for you," by the experimenter performed better.

The final two experiments involved a lucky charm brought by each participant. In a memory test and an anagram test, the participants who were permitted to keep their lucky charms with them performed better.

Boosted confidence

To find out if superstitious beliefs were truly giving students an edge, the scientists surveyed them before the final two experiments to gauge their confidence levels. The participants who kept their good luck charms set higher goals for what they wanted to achieve on the tasks, and said they felt more confident in their abilities.

"Engaging in superstitious thoughts and behaviors may be one way to reach one's top level of performance," the researchers write in the journal article.

People often become superstitious when faced with unknown and stressful situations, possibly explaining why athletes and students are often superstitious, the researchers say. Engaging in a superstition could reduce tension related to a high-stakes competition or an exam.

As the study showed, superstitious beliefs may also increase a person's belief in his or her own abilities and talents. And what may seem like a "lucky break" when the underdog team wins may really be the result of team-wide, superstition-induced confidence.

This article was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

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Superstitions Bring Real Luck, Study Reveals

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The next time you cross your fingers or tell someone to break a leg, you may actually be bringing some luck. Superstitious ways of bringing good luck are found in cultures around the world, and it turns out they may be ubiquitous for a very good reason: To some extent, superstitions work.

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In this video John goes over 32 different superstitions and where they came from. He talks about common ones like walking under a ladder or throwing salt over your shoulder then briefly describes how the particular scenario became a superstition. This is an example of appeal to authority. With 1,342,525 subscribers on youtube it's safe to say that mental floss is a popular channel on the website. Exactly 1,882,104 people have viewed this video. It is possible for people who didn't believe these superstitions now do after viewing this because he is such a popular person. At no point in the video does he provide resources to back up what he is saying, and the description lacks any further information to where he found this information.

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Black cats bring bad luck has been one of the biggest superstitions. This stems from a story back in 1560 a man and his son were walking at night and saw a black cat. They started to throw rocks at this cat until it escaped and ran into a womans house. The next day the two men came across the woman who lived in that house. She was limping and bruised. This led them to believe that women who are a witch can transform into a black cat. This superstition is an example of confirmation bias. Back then they accused women for being a witch all the time, for any reason. They took their own beliefs and formed it into something impossible, and because of this story black cats have had worse luck than we do when we come across them.

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Post #5: Throwing salt over the shoulder

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Post #5: Throwing salt over the shoulder

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This article explains why people throw salt over their shoulders. Most common with the Christianity religion, people throw salt over their shoulders after accidentally spilling it to "blind" the devil. This stemmed from the painting of the last supper. If you look closely you can see Judas with the salt knocked over by his elbow, then later he betrayed Jesus. This is another example of agenticity because it co-relates with a higher authority. In this case it is the devil and Jesus. There is no evidence to back up this superstition. Knocking over salt is only assumed to be a bad thing because Judas knocked it over and became a trader afterwards.

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Lots of chefs do it on television. Your grandma does it while she's cooking. You see the guy at the pizzeria do it. One time you even saw a woman at a restaurant do it. You might even do it yourself. So many people do it without understanding why, but throwing salt over your shoulder is an old tradition.

According to superstition, spilling salt is bad luck and throwing a pinch over your shoulder reverses that bad luck. Typically, it's thrown over the left shoulder. We don't know exactly when this tradition began, but there are a few explanations about why spilled salt is bad luck.

Take a close look at Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper, and you'll see that Judas Iscariot has knocked over the salt with his elbow. Because Judas betrayed Jesus Christ in the Bible, people began associating salt with lies and disloyalty. Throwing salt over the left shoulder blinds the devil, who was waiting there to force you into acts of bad behavior as well.

Why toss it over the left side? Some Christian beliefs hold that the devil hangs around behind your left shoulder, waiting to take advantage of you. If you spill salt, the devil sees it as an invitation to step in and do evil. Throwing it over your shoulder into his face blinds him and renders him helpless.

One theory has more to do with etiquette than warding off bad luck. In ancient times, salt was expensive -- so precious that, in some civilizations, it was even used as currency [source: Pettit]. Spilling salt was tantamount to throwing away money, and only the devil would cause someone to act with such foolishness. Tossing a pinch over your shoulder would blind the devil and make him think twice about trying to trick you again.

If you spilled the salt, you must be the one to throw it over your shoulder, or you won't thwart the bad luck. If you're the superstitious type, or just like to play it safe, it probably wouldn't hurt to toss a little pinch of that sodium chloride over your left shoulder should you accidentally spill some. You never know what might be lurking behind you!

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Why do people throw salt over their shoulders?

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Lots of chefs do it on television. Your grandma does it while she's cooking. You see the guy at the pizzeria do it. One time you even saw a woman at a restaurant do it. You might even do it yourself. So many people do it without understanding why, but throwing salt over your shoulder is an old tradition.

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This short clip gives a brief explanation as to why people in India have these superstitions. For example, people are not suppose to go near a peepal tree in the night, this is to avoid inhaling excessive carbon dioxide. This video has no red flags because it provides reasoning for the superstitions. However, it is lacking sources for the scientific explanations. It is possible for the video to be an example of fake evidence since there is no proof, just the maker of the videos words.

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Here Are Scientific Reasons For These Popular 15 Indian Superstitions Followed Since Olden Days

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Friday the 13th is thought to be the most unlucky date of the year. This belief stems from religious views. It is said that Judas (the 13th guest at the last supper) later betrayed Jesus Christ with a kiss on the cheek. Many unfortunate events also occurred on Friday the 13th. For example, Tupac Shakur died in 1996, and a cruise ship overturned in Italy in 2012, but events such as these occur everyday of the year. This superstition is an example of agentcity. From the event with Jesus Christ religious people now believe Friday the 13th is a day of bad luck, even though there is no scientific evidence.

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There's no scientific proof that superstitions exist, but it appears that superstitions are considered normal if you believe in a higher power. The study shown that people who described themselves as nonreligious were having the same reactions as the religious people. This article is an example of simplicity. Even though there's no scientific explanation to believe in superstitions everyone does to some extent. The article references the studies used, which backs up their point that no one is immune to magical thinking.

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Expressions of subconscious religious belief seem to increase when we are reminded of our own mortality-as they say, there are no atheists in foxholes. In one study, writing about death increased subjects' implicit associations between words for supernatural entities ( God, soul, hell) and synonyms for real ( true, factual). The effect was equally strong in Christians and in people who described themselves as nonreligious

Magical thinking is not just a result of ignorance or indoctrination-it appears to be a side effect of normal, socially adaptive thinking: we attribute intentions to the natural world in much the same way that we attribute intentions to other people. Indeed, a recent paper from a lab at the University of British Columbia reported that the better study participants were at reading others, the more strongly they believed in God, the paranormal, and the notion that life has a purpose Meanwhile, one of the few true avenues to atheism may be autism. The same lab found that the more autistic traits a person had, the less likely he or she was to believe in God

Fear is another driver of irrationality. In a British study, students imagined an encounter with a self-professed witch who offered to cast an evil spell on them. About half said a scientist should accept the hex without concern. Yet each of them said that, personally, they'd decline the offer [8].
The Studies: [7] Norenzayan et al., "Mentalizing Deficits Constrain Belief in a Personal God" ( One, 2012)

We want to hear what you think. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Matthew Hutson is a science writer based in New York City. He is the author of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking.

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Expressions of subconscious religious belief seem to increase when we are reminded of our own mortality-as they say, there are no atheists in foxholes. In one study, writing about death increased subjects' implicit associations between words for supernatural entities ( God, soul, hell) and synonyms for real ( true, factual).

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