Superstitions surround us on the daily, whether you consciously or unconsciously act upon them. You may have a lucky pair of socks that come out for exams or interviews. Perhaps you’re the annoying friend who always ensures they knock on wood to avoid bad luck, or maybe you’re an avid avoider of walking under ladders. Some are ancient, like the fear of bad luck surrounding Friday the 13th, while others are relatively new, like the TikTok trend of eating twelve grapes under a table on New Year’s Eve to bring luck and romance into the new year. In all cases, superstitions emerge in situations where we lack control over our circumstances but care greatly about the outcome.

It’s not just humans who perform rituals. In 1948, B.F. Skinner performed a study on pigeons, where he fed them every 15 seconds, regardless of their behaviour. As the length of the experiment increased, the pigeons adopted behavioural rituals which they performed before the provision of food because they believed those behaviours and actions were rewarded. This adventitious reinforcement was likened to superstitious beliefs held by humans. Have you ever experienced wearing a new piece of clothing on a day where something really good happens? Exactly. The association that develops between random behaviours and particular rewards is what leads to superstitions.

“Believing in the power of your lucky socks can improve your performance under pressure”

Believing in the power of your lucky socks can improve your performance under pressure, by harnessing the brain’s power of expectation. A study by the University of Cologne found that those who kept their lucky charms by their side during a memory test performed better than those who did not. Lucky charms boost confidence in the self, which then increase performance in situations where the results matter. While the charm itself is just that, a charm, it’s the attitude it makes us adopt that allows us to feel lucky.

Even though we may understand that these things are irrational, we believe in them. From a psychological perspective, superstitious beliefs and objects can reduce anxiety and create a sense of control in all of life’s unpredictability. Our brain provides us with a tactic to keep ourselves calmer and happier by placing the responsibility of success upon an object rather than on ourselves. By displacing the sense of responsibility, we perform better because there is less weight on our shoulders. And when we perform better once with a certain ritual, we are guaranteed to keep repeating the behaviours and beliefs, which continues to create positive outcomes because of self-belief. Win-win!

Yet, this can also have dangerous consequences. If the attachment and belief of good performance that stems from a certain lucky object is disrupted (say you lose your lucky socks) this increases stress and anxiety, and therefore means you would be more prone to failure in those same situations. Superstitions have the power to bring our greatest successes, but also our largest failures, depending on how much you rely on them.

“Superstitions have the power to bring our greatest successes, but also our largest failures”

So how can we channel the benefits of superstitious thinking into our daily lives? Rather than relying on an object that could be lost or broken to provide your luck, your increased performance could be guaranteed by aligning luck with something you will inevitably see in your day-to-day life. My college is home to many ducks, both real and plastic. Therefore, I could decide that seeing a duck means I will have a good day, which then would increase my mood, leaving me more optimistic about challenges I may face that day. It is down to us to create our superstitions, so by changing the way we focus on things, we can guarantee more success and happiness.

Superstitions rely on the power of belief and perception in our minds. Lucky charms, rituals, and beliefs can psychologically influence our attitudes, behaviours, and how we look at things, which, in turn, can lead to positive outcomes in life. As opposed to being lucky in themselves, they function as tools of self-belief which boost our confidence and decrease stress and anxiety, which is where the true magic lies.

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