Human Superstitions Explained By Pigeons

When representatives of the Australian government patrolled through the isolated highlands of New Guinea in 1946, the indigenous tribes slaughtered all of their pigs, as they believed the presence of white-skinned outsiders signaled the end of the world. Their prophecies had been fulfilled, they thought, and the Great Pigs would soon descend from the sky and usher in paradise.

Bizarre stories like this were common in New Guinea and other Melanesian islands. Beginning in the late 19th century, contact was made with the many tribes that lived in the difficult to traverse landscape. In many cases, this involved sharing newfangled devices from the outside world and large shipments of a vast array of goods. During World War 2, supply drops for the both the Japanese and the Americans sometimes went awry, randomly landing near indigenous settlements.

Over time, the indigenous people created superstitions that certain behaviors would cause these shipments to appear. Therefore, over decades, complicated rituals and belief systems emerged to entice this exotic cargo to appear, eventually leading to these tribes being labeled “cargo cults.” Some of these still exist by the way, such as the John Frum cult of Vanuatu. David Attenborough met them in 1960, resulting in some fascinating and confusing conversations.

While accounts like this may seem strange to us, the modern world is full of just as bizarre superstitions. So the question is why. Why do rational people engage in irrational behaviors and expect a reward? Why are they unable to see how irrational their behaviors are?

B.F. Skinner and His Pigeons

During the summer of 1947, the already famous behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner starved some pigeons and put them in his “Skinner Box.”

This box blocked all possible stimuli besides the one being tested. The idea was to control as many variables as possible in the experiment to better establish a relationship between a stimulus and a response. With such methods, Skinner explored operant conditioning, which is the idea that behaviors are reinforced or discouraged through positive or negative rewards.

In the beginning of the experiment, the pigeons received a morsel of food after pecking a button. Fairly quickly, the birds connected a particular behavior with a reward, thus demonstrating the basics of operant conditioning. However, Skinner decided to see what would happen if food was given randomly. Within a short time, 75% of the birds had developed their own rituals, which they believed would bring the food. One bird spun in a circle three times, another believed bobbing its head would make the food magically fall from the feeding tube.

Are Humans Any Different?

At first glance, the cargo cults and the pigeons seem the same. Both believed their behaviors could produce a reward. Both had been conditioned by a positive response, one by random food pellets, the other with random cargo shipments. Therefore, both incorrectly associated the response with a behavior.

But does this explain all of the other superstitions invented by humanity? For example, many in the US believe the number 13, crossing paths with a black cat, and walking under a ladder, will bring bad luck. Picking up a penny, a rabbit’s foot, 4-leaf clovers, on the other hand, will bring good luck. In some Asian countries, the number 4 is unlucky, while the color red is associated with luck and happiness. In Kenya if your palm is itchy, you might get a windfall of cash. In ancient Greece, a smashed pomegranate might bring good fortune. Humanity has a long list of superstitions through our long history.

One possible explanation for all of these is that humans naturally try to organize information into patterns. According to the psychologist Piaget, when people take in new information, they fit it into categories created in childhood called schemata. This makes it easier to retrieve and understand how it is related to other information. An essential part of this process is what Piaget called “precausal thinking,” which is just understanding the relationship between cause and effect. Therefore, the human brain is setup to find cause and effect relationships, whether they are true or not.

Furthermore, the human brain evolved to survive. Finding cause and effect relationships is essential to navigating a hostile world. Therefore, we not only naturally form causal relationships but we have a powerful instinct to create them.

Some studies have shown that superstitions actually improve performance. Researchers in Germany performed several tests to see how different types of superstitions affected performance. In one test, they had participants cross their fingers. In another they were given a lucky golf ball. Some were told to “break a leg.” In the end, all of the participants performed better. The researchers believe that “Activating a superstition boosts participants’ confidence in mastering upcoming tasks, which in turn improves performance.”

Lastly, convincing ourselves we understand the world reduces anxiety. Without them, the world seems chaotic and unpredictable. With them, we can rest a bit easier believing that we can understand how the world will unfold around us. According to one psychologist “superstitions arise from the desire to influence external events, decrease anxiety and reduce uncertainty.”

Superstitions may also help us deal with distressing aspects of life, such as death. In fact, this study looked at the connection between the prevalence of superstitions and fear of dying among Chinese graduate students, and “Superstition was found to be predictor of death anxiety, as expected.”

Therefore, it seems superstitions are an inevitable product of the human brain, help us survive, boost our performance, and make us feel good. No wonder they are so prevalent not just in our species but in others as well. For the pigeons, their superstitions seemed to be simpler and revolve only around food. Humans, though, are much more complex, and, therefore, have much more complex superstitions.

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