Nope, we’re definitely not superstitious! Never! It’s just a load of nonsense! Until, that is, on Friday the thirteenth a black cat happens to cross our path and we feel a shiver go down our spine. Or the mirror cracks from side to side … is it a message? It can’t be good!
Wherever you go in the world you’ll find religious beliefs and, nestling in the shadows, all manner of superstitions. Every country, every culture has its own unique and highly idiosyncratic beliefs:
In the Netherlands you’re well advised never to sing a cheerful tune at the table – songs like these attract the devil. And in Lithuania, whistling indoors is a sure-fire way to summon demons. In Norway, please never ever whistle when the sun’s shining because that is certain to provoke the gods to send rain. In Russia, expectant mothers should never eat secretly because their child will turn out to be a coward. In Germany in earlier days, pregnant women were warned not to give into their cravings because that meant their child would become a thief.
The number 13 mentioned above is considered a black number by North Americans and Europeans – even seat rows in planes and train station platforms are called 12a to avoid bad luck. In southern Europe, it’s the number 17, and for the Chinese and Japanese four is unlucky because it sounds very close to the word for death and suffering. And it absolutely goes without saying that 666 is by far the most evil, satanic of all the numbers.
Most of these myths are ancient, going back to the Middle Ages or even further, to the early days of the world’s religions. Often, though, the origins of the superstitions we believe in are shrouded in the mists of time, replicated without asking why. They are passed down from generation to generation, but just why you need to toss a few grains of salt over your shoulder to ward off bad luck if you spill salt is anyone’s guess. A reasonable explanation is probably that salt was once so costly and rare that it needed to be protected with a ban. It was almost as valuable as gold, and losing gold today would definitely be considered a stroke of very bad luck.
Superstitions are of particular interest to academics because they play such an important role in practically every culture and society around the world. In psychology, superstition is regarded as closely connected to the self-fulfilling prophecy: when everyone yells, “Watch out! That’s going to go wrong!”, it makes it more than likely that the undertaking will, in fact, go pear-shaped, if simply due to nerves. Or the placebo effect: our headache clears the moment we take an aspirin. Later, we discover the untouched pill on the kitchen table. How can that be?!
