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posted by mrpg on Friday April 19 2019, @09:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the thank-god(s)-for-science! dept.

Even seemingly irrational beliefs can become ensconced in the social norms of a society. Research by biologists in the School of Arts and Sciences shows how.

Ancient Roman leaders once made decisions about important events, such as when to hold elections or where to build new cities, based on the presence or flight patterns of birds. Builders often omit the thirteenth floor from their floor plans, and many pedestrians go well out of their way to avoid walking under a ladder.

While it's widely recognized that superstitions like these are not rational, many persist, guiding the behavior of large groups of people even today.

In a new analysis driven by game theory, two theoretical biologists devised a model that shows how superstitious beliefs can become established in a society's social norms. Their work, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates how groups of individuals, each starting with distinct belief systems, can evolve a coordinated set of behaviors that are enforced by a set of consistent social norms.

How superstitions spread


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  • (Score: 2) by inertnet on Friday April 19 2019, @01:28PM (6 children)

    by inertnet (4071) on Friday April 19 2019, @01:28PM (#832137) Journal

    I've heard about strong examples, like witches that are supposed to steal babies. This superstition is reinforced whenever a baby dies or is stillborn, because people explain such tragedies with: "see, you didn't take proper precautions and now the witch took your baby". Women around the world are still getting murdered after being accused of witchcraft.

    Superstition is so strong that even educated people still practice it, "just to be safe".

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Friday April 19 2019, @02:05PM

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Friday April 19 2019, @02:05PM (#832147) Journal

    Superstition is so strong that even educated, people still practice it, "just to be safe".

    There's education, and then again, there's "education", which is more accurately described as some combination of deception, misinformation, and the imposition of something essentially of the nature of Stockholm syndrome. [wikipedia.org]

    Unless your education (self or formal) includes a proper grounding in scientific method and does not try to impose superstition on you in the process such as is encountered in religious schools, unless your mind is able to recognize and stand against data-free assertion, you are considerably more likely end up numbered among the superstitious.

    There's also being brought up into the cult: If your parent(s)/guardian(s) pushed superstition on you as a child, there's often a long climb back up into the light of reality. Initially, what you "know" is really what you've been told. It is only later that most can apply enough other knowledge and skilled reasoning to break those concepts out as obviously without merit. That doesn't mean they will, either; often, initial conditioning is strong enough to destroy people's ability to escape from it.

    Also, there is this. [fyngyrz.com]

    --
    I dream of a world where chickens can cross the
    road without having their motives questioned.

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Friday April 19 2019, @02:52PM (3 children)

    by ledow (5567) on Friday April 19 2019, @02:52PM (#832172) Homepage

    "If you don't at least pretend to pray to the big beard in the sky (that's its own father and son) once a week, he'll notice and then bad things will happen to you either now or after you're dead".

    Religion is the biggest superstition there is, and responsible for a million times worse.

    Superstitions are the smalltalk of the idiot, when they have nothing logical or practical to say.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Friday April 19 2019, @10:08PM (2 children)

      by Bot (3902) on Friday April 19 2019, @10:08PM (#832327) Journal

      > Religion is the biggest superstition there is, and responsible for a million times worse.

      Your data is obsolete, nowadays the most widespread superstition is insurance and pension funds, by a mile. Unfortunately I cannot calculate how many victims they cause because the incumbents are not keen on disclosing details.
      Religion comes second, with atheism battling with islam for the top spot as most toxic religion in absolute terms. Scientology is trending well, if you have to enter the market now keep an eye (of Horus) on them. Christianity, once a stronghold of egregious bloodbaths when slightly mistaken, and my personal favorite in either flavor, orthodox or bloodthirsty, sadly pussified itself.

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      Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 20 2019, @12:26AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 20 2019, @12:26AM (#832381)

        > the most widespread superstition is insurance and pension funds

        Can you elaborate? In USA, my parents put money into a "taxable annuity" up to the time my father retired (probably around 1980, not sure of exact date). They left it there, didn't take anything out (father kept working at a small company he started to supplement social security). My father died, my mother (17 years younger) just started taking a mandatory payout at age 90, a few months ago. The principal they put in nearly quadrupled and the payout is coming at 3.2% on the total (over a defined number of years).

        Doesn't seem like superstition to me, but maybe you have a different definition? It's possible they could have done better in the markets directly, but neither of them had any talent or interest in stock picking (etc).

        • (Score: 3, Touché) by ledow on Saturday April 20 2019, @10:46AM

          by ledow (5567) on Saturday April 20 2019, @10:46AM (#832503) Homepage

          I'm not the OP,but... because they paid regularly into an account for decades, left it alone for decades, and it took your father to die, and your mother to turn 90 before they paid her back that same money with a little bit of interest?

          So the insurers basically invested all the money you and everyone else gave them, for decades, made a tidy profit on top, and then gave the lucky ones who did live until 90 (i.e. way above average life expectancy) some of the money they'd got from the unlucky ones?

          Life insurance and pensions are a bet against how long you'll live. Almost everyone who pays won't live long enough to see it (or will die in a non-insured fashion or similar). The ones who do live long enough get "more" back, but they could have made more just putting it in a savings account for a few decades and never touching it. In that time, they also paid a lot of tax on it ("taxable" is right there in the name). And between what they put in and what they take out, the inflation likely accounts for much of the figurative increase on the numbers.

          I just ran an online tool:

          If in 1980 I purchased an item for $1.00
          then in 2019 that same item would cost: $3.08
          Cumulative rate of inflation: 208.5%

          So even without knowing any payments or accurate dates, that monetary amount they invested is actually "worth" a third of what they've put in over the years. Save $10,000, get $30,000 back many years later... sounds like a great deal no? Actually, you just about stayed even, if that.

          If you'd bought property, or any significant and fairly-timeless asset, your increases would have been way, way, way above inflation.

          Your mother is getting back what your father paid, with a pittance added on, tax taken out, and a whole lot of profit for the company that did it. And she's one of the lucky ones.

          That's why he says that it's a superstition.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Bot on Friday April 19 2019, @09:48PM

    by Bot (3902) on Friday April 19 2019, @09:48PM (#832316) Journal

    > Women around the world are still getting murdered after being accused of witchcraft.

    Uh the correct term is 'executed'. If that seems cruel to you, it's because you haven't been exposed to enough woman.
    /troll

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    Account abandoned.