Did Humans Evolve To Be Superstitious?

Humans and other animals often hold superstitions -- but why? Could it have been biologically advantageous to our ancestors? Learn more about superstition in this episode of BrainStuff. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff Lauren bog Obam here. Every culture has its
own superstitions, or magical thinking, as some psychologists call it.
Superstitious beliefs go back as far as human history, and
they still exist today, from sports stars who perform certain
rituals before games to people who won't walk under a

(00:24):
ladder or who always knock on wood for luck. Many
of us even do these things without thinking. That's how
ingrained in our behaviors superstitions are. If superstitions go back
so far in history and remain so common, is it
possible that humans evolved to think this way. Some scientists
and psychologists say yes, we are indeed wired for magical thinking.

(00:48):
Superstitious thinking is the result of falsely linking a cause
to an effect. Using the sports example, if a baseball
player hits a home run during a playoff game and
happened to not shave that day, he may decide his
unshaven face brought him luck and refused to shave for
the rest of the series. In reality, it was his
skill as a ballplayer and a little bit of chance

(01:09):
that brought him that home run. But he's not going
to take any risks, and the comfort of believing that
he may have some control over his destiny may actually
improve his performance. But back to evolution. In prehistoric times,
humans had to be constantly alert for predators. The sound
of wrestling in the grass, for example, might signify an

(01:30):
animal or enemy preparing to strike. On the other hand,
it could just be a breeze. However, for self preservation,
this human had to decide quickly the cost of being
right or wrong about the origin of the wrestling Airing
on the side of caution could save their life, and
if they were right and it was a dangerous predator,
chances are that human would flee without weighing the chances

(01:52):
when they heard wrestling any time after that. Further, if
multiple signals preceded the arrival of a predator, such as
a full moon, our prehistoric friend might also make the
false association that a rustling sound during a full moon
definitely meant a dangerous animal was in the vicinity from
a very real threat, a superstition is born. Our brains

(02:13):
connect the dots in a situation, whether or not it's logical,
and we adapt our behavior accordingly. Even other animals besides
humans are superstitious. Evolutionary biologist Kevin Foster uses pigeons as
an example. You might notice that if you clap your
hands at a nearby pigeon, it'll quickly fly away, even
though pigeons are pretty smart. No really, they are smart

(02:35):
enough anyway to tell the difference between the sound of
a gunshot, which would mean near certain death, and a
hand clap, which is harmless. The pigeon will flee the
scene just in case. The pigeon evolved, just like our ancestors,
to be better safe than sorry, And if you think
about it, the theory of natural selection favors these early
superstitious creatures humans and animals alike. Sometimes, however, superstitions can

(02:59):
contribute towards eyes. A two thousand three studies showed that
road fatalities in South Africa were ten times more frequent
than in the United States. Much of this is blamed
on a superstitious belief that accidents result from witchcraft or
that certain medicines can prevent car crashes. The more superstitious
the driver, the higher the accident rate. This goes to

(03:19):
show that, like the fight or flight response triggered by stress,
are ingrained tendencies for superstitious beliefs can be just as
likely to work to our detriment as to our benefit.
Today's episode was written by Deborah Ranca and produced by
Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio's
How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of

(03:41):
other evolving topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works
dot com, and for more podcasts. For my heart Radio,
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