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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.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday April 19 2019, @11:14PM
Many (if not most) cultural superstitions are the result of a behavioral sequence occurring often enough to forge a powerful aversive emotional reaction, whether the original population involved knew intellectually it was a case of correlation-not-causation or knew there really was a causative effect but lacked the knowledge to explain it. So the first generation might have naturally avoided the behavior as it reminded them of horrible things that had happened, but then taught it as a blanket rule to their children at a young enough age that the "rule" became ingrained emotionally without the underlying logic.
The two that come to my mind immediately from my childhood were to never place a hat upon a bed or footwear on the table as either behavior would be followed by a death in the family. The 'footwear' superstition almost certainly has its roots in historic hygiene: people knew that potentially-fatal illnesses occurred after shoes were placed on an eating surface, but were unaware it was caused by the wide variety of fecal bacteria they would've picked up by walking in areas where animal & human waste was common.
The 'hat' rule, meanwhile, would've started as an emotional aversion. Back when people commonly died at home, Catholics would have the priest perform the Last Rites in the final days/hours; since houses were fairly small, the priest often would come into the room and place his hat upon the nearest flat surface (the bed) in order to don his vestments. That could've created a typical Pavlovian reaction: someone sees a hat upon the bed right before a death often enough, and would react in the future by feeling either grief or anxiety.
Neither case is a matter of lying, deliberately ignoring facts, or similar; it's a built-in fundamental level of psychology that can be observed in all mammals, as it greatly improved the animal's chance of surviving long enough to pass its genes on to the next generation. Having a complex brain that is capable of rational thought doesn't change that; we can intentionally use it to mitigate it (e.g. to combat phobias that interfere with daily life or personal goals) but that doesn't change how our brains are wired.