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==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] supersticion, from Anglo-French, from [[Latin]] superstition-, superstitio, from superstit-, superstes standing over (as [[witness]] or [[survivor]]), from super- + stare to stand
*Date: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]
==Definitions==
*1 a : a [[belief]] or [[practice]] resulting from ignorance, [[fear]] of the [[unknown]], [[trust]] in [[magic]] or [[chance]], or a false conception of [[causation]]
:b : an irrational abject [[attitude]] of [[mind]] toward the [[supernatural]], [[nature]], or [[God]] resulting from superstition
*2 : a notion maintained despite [[evidence]] to the contrary
==Description==
'''Superstition''' is a credulous [[belief]] or notion, not based on [[reason]], [[knowledge]], or [[experience]]. The [[word]] is often used pejoratively to refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_belief folk beliefs] deemed [[irrational]]. This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales". It is also commonly applied to [[beliefs]] and [[practices]] surrounding [[luck]], [[prophecy]] and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational [[belief]] that future events can be influenced or foretold by specific unrelated prior [[events]].
The word is attested in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Century BC 1st century BC], notably in Cicero, Livy, Ovid, in the [[meaning]] of an unreasonable or excessive [[belief]] in [[fear]] or [[magic]], especially foreign or fantastical ideas. By the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Century 1st century AD], it came to refer to "religious [[awe]], sanctity; a religious [[rite]]" more generally.[2][3]
==Superstition and folklore==
To European medieval [[scholars]] the [[word]] was applied to any [[beliefs]] outside of or in opposition to [[Christianity]]; today it is applied to conceptions without [[foundation]] in, or in contravention of, [[scientific]] and [[logical]] [[knowledge]].[4]
In keeping with the [[Latin]] etymology of the word, religious believers have often seen other religions as superstition. Likewise, [[atheists]] and agnostics may regard any [[religious]] [[belief]] as superstition.
Religious practices are most likely to be labeled "superstitious" by outsiders when they include [[belief]] in extraordinary [[events]] ([[miracles]]), an [[afterlife]], [[supernatural]] interventions, apparitions or the efficacy of [[prayer]], [[charm]]s, incantations, the meaningfulness of omens, and prognostications.
[[Greek]] and [[Roman]] pagans, who modeled their relations with the gods on [[political]] and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with [[fear]] at the thought of the gods, as a [[slave]] feared a cruel and capricious master. "Such fear of the gods (deisidaimonia) was what the Romans meant by 'superstition' (Veyne 1987, p 211). For Christians just such fears might be worn proudly as a name: Desdemona.
Some superstitions originated as religious [[practices]] that continued to be observed by people who no longer adhere to the [[religion]] that gave birth to the [[practice]]. Often the practices lost their [[original]] meaning in this [[process]]. In other cases, the practices are adapted to the current religion of the practicer. As an example, during the Christianizing of Europe, [[pagan]] symbols to ward off evil were replaced with the Christian cross.
==Superstition and psychology==
In 1948, behavioural psychologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.F._Skinner B.F. Skinner] published an article in the ''Journal of Experimental Psychology'', in which he described his pigeons exhibiting what appeared to be superstitious [[behaviour]]. One pigeon was making turns in its cage, another would swing its head in a [[pendulum]] [[motion]], while others also displayed a variety of other behaviours. Because these behaviours were all done ritualistically in an attempt to receive food from a dispenser, even though the dispenser had already been programmed to release food at set time intervals regardless of the pigeons' actions, Skinner believed that the pigeons were trying to [[influence]] their feeding schedule by [[performing]] these actions. He then extended this as a proposition regarding the nature of superstitious behaviour in humans.[5]
Skinner's theory regarding superstition being the [[nature]] of the pigeons' behaviour has been challenged by other psychologists such as Staddon and Simmelhag, who theorised an alternative explanation for the pigeons' behaviour.[6]
Despite challenges to Skinner's [[interpretation]] of the root of his pigeons' superstitious behaviour, his conception of the reinforcement schedule has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans. Originally, in Skinner's [[animal]] [[research]], "some pigeons responded up to 10,000 times without reinforcement when they had originally been conditioned on an intermittent reinforcement basis."[7] Compared to the other reinforcement schedules (e.g. fixed ratio, fixed interval), these behaviours were also the most [[resistant]] to extinction.[7] This is called the partial reinforcement effect, and this has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans. To be more precise, this [[effect]] means that, whenever an [[individual]] performs an action [[expecting]] a reinforcement, and none seems forthcoming, it actually creates a sense of [[persistence]] within the individual.[8] This strongly parallels superstitious behaviour in humans because the individual feels that, by continuing this action, reinforcement will happen; or that reinforcement has come at certain times in the past as a result of this action, although not all the time, but this may be one of those times.
From a simpler [[perspective]], natural selection will tend to reinforce a tendency to generate weak [[association]]s. If there is a strong survival advantage to making correct associations, then this will outweigh the negatives of making many incorrect, "superstitious" associations.[9]
==References==
# There are alternative proposals for the contemporary meaning, including "over-ceremoniousness" or "survival of old religious habits", but these concepts would have been intrinsic, and therefore unremarked, in the religious practices of the time. Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989.
# Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1982.
# Turcan, Robert (1996). The Cults of the Roman Empire. Nevill, Antonia (trans.). Oxford, England: Blackwell. pp. pp 10–12. ISBN 0631200479.
# Jolly, raylene seaton; Raudvere, Catharina & Peters, Edward (2001) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. x.
# Skinner, B. F. (1948). 'Superstition' in the Pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(2), 168-172.
# Staddon, J. E., & Simmelhag, V. L. (1971). The 'supersitition' experiment: A reexamination of its implications for the principles of adaptive behaviour. Psychological Review, 78(1), 3-43.
# Schultz & Schultz (2004, 238).
# Carver & Scheier (2004, 332).
# Kevin R. Foster; Hanna Kokko (2009), "The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour", Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276: 31, doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0981
[[Category: Religion]]
[[Category: Psychology]]
==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] supersticion, from Anglo-French, from [[Latin]] superstition-, superstitio, from superstit-, superstes standing over (as [[witness]] or [[survivor]]), from super- + stare to stand
*Date: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]
==Definitions==
*1 a : a [[belief]] or [[practice]] resulting from ignorance, [[fear]] of the [[unknown]], [[trust]] in [[magic]] or [[chance]], or a false conception of [[causation]]
:b : an irrational abject [[attitude]] of [[mind]] toward the [[supernatural]], [[nature]], or [[God]] resulting from superstition
*2 : a notion maintained despite [[evidence]] to the contrary
==Description==
'''Superstition''' is a credulous [[belief]] or notion, not based on [[reason]], [[knowledge]], or [[experience]]. The [[word]] is often used pejoratively to refer to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_belief folk beliefs] deemed [[irrational]]. This leads to some superstitions being called "old wives' tales". It is also commonly applied to [[beliefs]] and [[practices]] surrounding [[luck]], [[prophecy]] and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational [[belief]] that future events can be influenced or foretold by specific unrelated prior [[events]].
The word is attested in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Century BC 1st century BC], notably in Cicero, Livy, Ovid, in the [[meaning]] of an unreasonable or excessive [[belief]] in [[fear]] or [[magic]], especially foreign or fantastical ideas. By the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Century 1st century AD], it came to refer to "religious [[awe]], sanctity; a religious [[rite]]" more generally.[2][3]
==Superstition and folklore==
To European medieval [[scholars]] the [[word]] was applied to any [[beliefs]] outside of or in opposition to [[Christianity]]; today it is applied to conceptions without [[foundation]] in, or in contravention of, [[scientific]] and [[logical]] [[knowledge]].[4]
In keeping with the [[Latin]] etymology of the word, religious believers have often seen other religions as superstition. Likewise, [[atheists]] and agnostics may regard any [[religious]] [[belief]] as superstition.
Religious practices are most likely to be labeled "superstitious" by outsiders when they include [[belief]] in extraordinary [[events]] ([[miracles]]), an [[afterlife]], [[supernatural]] interventions, apparitions or the efficacy of [[prayer]], [[charm]]s, incantations, the meaningfulness of omens, and prognostications.
[[Greek]] and [[Roman]] pagans, who modeled their relations with the gods on [[political]] and social terms, scorned the man who constantly trembled with [[fear]] at the thought of the gods, as a [[slave]] feared a cruel and capricious master. "Such fear of the gods (deisidaimonia) was what the Romans meant by 'superstition' (Veyne 1987, p 211). For Christians just such fears might be worn proudly as a name: Desdemona.
Some superstitions originated as religious [[practices]] that continued to be observed by people who no longer adhere to the [[religion]] that gave birth to the [[practice]]. Often the practices lost their [[original]] meaning in this [[process]]. In other cases, the practices are adapted to the current religion of the practicer. As an example, during the Christianizing of Europe, [[pagan]] symbols to ward off evil were replaced with the Christian cross.
==Superstition and psychology==
In 1948, behavioural psychologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.F._Skinner B.F. Skinner] published an article in the ''Journal of Experimental Psychology'', in which he described his pigeons exhibiting what appeared to be superstitious [[behaviour]]. One pigeon was making turns in its cage, another would swing its head in a [[pendulum]] [[motion]], while others also displayed a variety of other behaviours. Because these behaviours were all done ritualistically in an attempt to receive food from a dispenser, even though the dispenser had already been programmed to release food at set time intervals regardless of the pigeons' actions, Skinner believed that the pigeons were trying to [[influence]] their feeding schedule by [[performing]] these actions. He then extended this as a proposition regarding the nature of superstitious behaviour in humans.[5]
Skinner's theory regarding superstition being the [[nature]] of the pigeons' behaviour has been challenged by other psychologists such as Staddon and Simmelhag, who theorised an alternative explanation for the pigeons' behaviour.[6]
Despite challenges to Skinner's [[interpretation]] of the root of his pigeons' superstitious behaviour, his conception of the reinforcement schedule has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans. Originally, in Skinner's [[animal]] [[research]], "some pigeons responded up to 10,000 times without reinforcement when they had originally been conditioned on an intermittent reinforcement basis."[7] Compared to the other reinforcement schedules (e.g. fixed ratio, fixed interval), these behaviours were also the most [[resistant]] to extinction.[7] This is called the partial reinforcement effect, and this has been used to explain superstitious behaviour in humans. To be more precise, this [[effect]] means that, whenever an [[individual]] performs an action [[expecting]] a reinforcement, and none seems forthcoming, it actually creates a sense of [[persistence]] within the individual.[8] This strongly parallels superstitious behaviour in humans because the individual feels that, by continuing this action, reinforcement will happen; or that reinforcement has come at certain times in the past as a result of this action, although not all the time, but this may be one of those times.
From a simpler [[perspective]], natural selection will tend to reinforce a tendency to generate weak [[association]]s. If there is a strong survival advantage to making correct associations, then this will outweigh the negatives of making many incorrect, "superstitious" associations.[9]
==References==
# There are alternative proposals for the contemporary meaning, including "over-ceremoniousness" or "survival of old religious habits", but these concepts would have been intrinsic, and therefore unremarked, in the religious practices of the time. Oxford English Dictionary (Second ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1989.
# Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 1982.
# Turcan, Robert (1996). The Cults of the Roman Empire. Nevill, Antonia (trans.). Oxford, England: Blackwell. pp. pp 10–12. ISBN 0631200479.
# Jolly, raylene seaton; Raudvere, Catharina & Peters, Edward (2001) Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. x.
# Skinner, B. F. (1948). 'Superstition' in the Pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38(2), 168-172.
# Staddon, J. E., & Simmelhag, V. L. (1971). The 'supersitition' experiment: A reexamination of its implications for the principles of adaptive behaviour. Psychological Review, 78(1), 3-43.
# Schultz & Schultz (2004, 238).
# Carver & Scheier (2004, 332).
# Kevin R. Foster; Hanna Kokko (2009), "The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour", Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276: 31, doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0981
[[Category: Religion]]
[[Category: Psychology]]
