The only thing you can do then, is to appease, involve or avoid these forces in order to achieve what you want (for example, on the day of your next job interview, you avoid black cats). They induce a false sense of security, such that forces outside your control become responsible for what happens in your life. Much like a placebo effect, superstitions give some sort of reassurance, sometimes even acting as a scapegoat, when things aren’t going that well, and some sort of causal explanation when they are (in the sense of a good luck charm or activity). If you look at them in the short term, they bring comfort to those who believe in them. (Photo Credit : Pixabay)Īlso Read: What Are Some Superstitions Involving Animals? To explain the inexplicable, superstitions are employed. Superstitions in this way have cultural or historical value, and therefore serve as a means to relate with one’s heritage and community. So, if a community believes that by dancing to the pleasure of the rain deities, droughts can be warded off, then they will come together in the act of this shared belief and action. People generally tend to stick around and appreciate other people who validate their beliefs or actions by sharing them. In a community that shares a superstition, the shared beliefs induce a sort of solidarity among its members. Superstitions do serve a very important function when they are shared by a group of people, especially if the superstitions happen to be long-established ones. The cat may not be the one who brings you bad luck, but then who does? (Photo Credit : Pixabay)Īlso Read: Why Do We Believe In Superstitions Even Though We Know They’re Irrational? Can Superstitions Serve A Purpose?
The next time our feline friend comes your way, and you then bump your head or stub your toe, your mind will immediately go back to the association and reinforce it as an explanation. So, if you were walking on a street and a black cat crossed your path, and you spilled tea immediately after, you may start associating black cats with bad luck. When there are holes in our cognition that have no rational answers, we fill them up with irrational ones.
Superstitions are flawed perceptions of events that aren’t patently explainable.
To them, superstitions are more or less rooted in hocus-pocus, perceived magic and fatalism. They are seen as irrational, supernatural or unscientific by those who witness them from outside. Superstitions are practices, beliefs and attributions that emanate from an alternate understanding of events-often inexplicable ones.
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