ANALYSIS OF SUPERSTITION 2

Analysis of Superstition

Despite popular view that superstition is for irrational minds and lacks consequence, it is
still embraced by many people who rely on superstitious practices and thoughts for luck
(Damisch et al., 2010). The paper’s research sought to find out potential benefits and
consequences of superstition and the psychological mechanism that underlie their working. All
experiments in the research showed that activating superstitions related to good luck improves
one’s performance in activities such as anagram games and golfing (Damisch et al., 2010). The
third and fourth experiments found that the improved performance is due to perceived self
efficacy changes as activating superstition increased one’s confidence which in turn improves
one’s performance in a given task. The fourth experiment found that another reason why
superstition improves performance is through increasing persistence when performing a task at
hand (Damisch et al., 2010).
Superstition can be explained using operant conditioning. Operant conditioning creates
an association between behavior and consequence (Markman et al., 2008). This association is at
the heart of superstition. In superstition, a particular event, incidence, or behavior precedes a
specific response (Markman et al., 2008). For instance, one notices that the team they support
wins when they put on a red top. If the person is superstitious and by coincidence the first few
times the initial stimulus leads to a particular response, they begin associating the stimulus
(behavior, event etc.) with the consequence. This association is reinforced through subsequent
coincidences until it becomes belief (Markman et al., 2008). So if a person notices thrice or four
times that their team wins when they put on a red top, they may start associating their team’s

ANALYSIS OF SUPERSTITION 3
victory with their dress code. Subsequent coincidences may reinforce this association until it
becomes a belief.
One of my superstitious beliefs is that whenever I trip when walking I do not perform
well in any tasks I undertake thereafter for the rest of the day. I developed this superstition when
still young. I used to perform well in class. However, I noticed then any time I tripped I would
perform poorly in any classroom activity, including tests, given on that day. I, therefore, began
associating tripping with poor performance of all tasks, not just classroom ones.

ANALYSIS OF SUPERSTITION 4

References

Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2010). Keep your fingers crossed! How
superstition improves performance. Psychological Science, 21(7), 1014-1020.
Markman, K. D., McMullen, M. N., & Elizaga, R. A. (2008). Counterfactual thinking,
persistence, and performance: A test of the reflection and evaluation model. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 44(2), 421-428.