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A sample of superstitions
What do these have in common? Tarot card reading Triskaidekaphobia Whistling for wind Bad luck from breaking a mirror First footing Water dowsing
That these possibly do not? Believing in fairies or UFOs Using Vitamin C against colds Saying Mass Wishing people good luck Newtonian physics
Jahoda definition
Gustav Jahoda, 1956
the kind of belief and action a reasonable man in present-day Western society would regard as being superstitious
Uncertainty
Superstitions form under conditions of uncertainty
Malinowski (1925) on Trobriand islanders Empirical support
Vyse (1991) matrix-task study Keinan (1994) on Israelis under SCUD attacks Padgett, Jorgenson (1982) on economic threat in Germany
Anthropological explanations
Motivational - Anxiety reduction (Malinowski 1925)
Main thesis in anthropology
Alternative explanations
Cognitive - Primitive attempts to understand the world (Frazer 1922) Social - Communicating willingness to cooperate (Palmer 1989)
Psychological explanations
Originate with Skinners 1948 pigeon study (Skinner 1948) Operant conditioning is not just for rats and pigeons (Vyse 1997)
Pattern seeking
Psychologists focus on pattern seeking Pattern seeking explanations:
Emotional need to find a pattern Vyse (1997) seems to accept this at times Finding non-existent patterns sometimes less costly - Killeen (1997, 1981) on just in case justifications Evolutionary biasing - McKay (2007) applying Haseltons error management theory
Nave inductivism
Danger of a nave inductivist view of pattern seeking
Beck, Forstmeier (2005) on adaptive learning strategies
General idea of relating superstition to pattern seeking not reliant on nave views of learning
Problem
What about non-superstitious false beliefs? A profound difference
Supernatural beliefs
Superstitions as involving supernatural beliefs
Seemingly attractive approach But highly problematic
Religion
Problem 2 - difference between religion and superstition
Superstition as false religion (Aquinas 1265) Religion as true superstition? Institutionalisation/function of beliefs/practices (Durkheim 1912, Wilson 2002) Difference in espoused aims?
Pseudoscience
Problem 3 - Pseudoscientific superstitions
Saher, Lindeman (2005) on alternative medicine and supernatural beliefs Other evidence for post hoc explanations People may opt for supernatural/pseudoscientific explanations of patterns due to unavailability of natural explanations
Thus far
Superstition linked to uncertainty May be due to just in case pattern seeking Not to be identified with false beliefs May not necessarily involve supernatural claims Need to consider the cognitive processes which lead to superstition
Cognitive processes
Cognitive explanations
Logical versus pre-logical thinking (Durkheim 1912, Lvy-Bruhl 1910) Childhood versus adult modes of thought (Piaget 1929)
Reify superstitious/rational distinction in terms of different modes of thought Problem - Not all pre-logical or childhood thinking results in superstitious beliefs
Identification of superstition still problematic
Developmental psychology
(Hood, Bloom 2007, Lindeman, Aarnio 2006) on essentialist accounts of childhood intuitive reasoning
Weaknesses
Can not identify superstition with a mode of reasoning
But provide a richer picture of limited human abilities
Ecological rationality
Reasoning needs to fit the specific problems it is applied to (Simon 1956) Superstitions may be the result of a mismatch between the reasoning and the situation it is applied to
Thank you
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