Where Do Superstitious Beliefs Originate From?

How do people develop superstition and irrational beliefs? How do they form a connection between contextually unrelated concepts. For example some people have a fear of certain numbers. How these certain numbers came to be associated with evilness, isn't it simply irrational to believe that a symbol can have any effect on reality just by seeing it? I mean, numbers are just symbols, and don't really mean anything at all by themselves. In most cases the context determines the meaning and appropriate interpretation.

It seems completely irrational to connect concepts when there is no obvious clear relationship between them. It seems people can "confirm" such beliefs because their cognitive bias allows them to only consider information that confirms the belief, despite the fact that if all information was considered then it would be clear that there is no statistical correlation beyond random chance.

For example, elevators don't include the 13th floor (the chinese omit the number 4, because the word for 4 sounds similar to the word for death) and instead relable that floor as something else, maybe jumping straight from 12 to 14, or maybe calling the 13th floor 14A and 14 proper 14B to preserve the numbers of floors above 13. I find this completely absurd that this is perpetuated to such a degree where a silly superstition is actually reflected in such a way as the omission of a number from the elevator in official government buildings. What's obvious to me is that no matter what number you assign to it, it's still really the 13th floor. It's as if thinking certain things or performing certain actions can influence events in your life and what happens to you, even when there is no causal connection. Synchronicities can be quite alarming, but they appeal more to the delusional side of consiousness. The mind connects two events through symbolic meaning (and meaning is totally subjective) that have no causal connection. Many people fear and avoid the number 666, and will panic if this number appears. The thing is though that many numbers often appear, and if you consciously look for any certain number you will end up finding it to appear quite often in everyday life.

I think that this is similar to magical thining (and superstition is almost like believing in magic), perhaps its a primitive evolutionary adaptation before higher thinking developed. It actually seems to bear some simiarities to features of mental illness, though for some reason it isn't always seen this way by society and is more accepted. Psychologically i don't think there's much difference, whether a certain superstition is a socially "accepted" one or not.

 

This is an interesting subject but I lack the intellectual energy to voice my theories right now,or maybe I just haven't thought about it enough.

I suppose notions of Gods,spirits and magical thinking originated from ancient human kind's attempts to make sense of natural phenomena,and as language developed social memes developed and became ingrained into cultural practice.Maybe some superstitions evolved from single persons experiences,and spread through local culture's storytelling mechanisms and became legends passed through time amongst neighbouring peoples,kind of like how religions grew to find answers to the ineffable mysteries of existence.Maybe shamans on psychoactive substances spread superstitions and caught on in the imaginations of tribal peoples.

Failing that,maybe miracles are real,the universe plays it's unfathomable mystic games with us,and it's all real,or at least some of it.

 

I do agree when buildings don't have a 13th floor that's too far

I suppose if you see it from a spiritual perspective, if you think some higher conciseness or being, or whatever /entity /idea /etc. is communicating with you, what better way to be done than with symbols? symbols will be replicated/copied like patterns throughout time, and they bring an emotional response and meaning to an individual.

 

I think it's too far because once you can somehow rationalize this to make sense of it, how then do you tell reality from any other delusion? I do believe in the butterfly effect. Poor choice of words, it's not my belief or opinion, its a fact that small pertubations in a system can push said system over threshold for an event to occur. That doesn't mean that these small pertubations on their own are significant in any way, the system was already unstable and that just pushed it over the edge (the straw that broke the camel's back).

Any event can be connected to almost any other event in a persons life, though possibly by way of many different levels of indirection. The direct cause of an event is the only true cause, which itself could have different possible causes in such a way that A is caued by B, and B is caused by C. But it is inapproriate to say C is the cause of A, because in another instance B might be caused by something else (D). Its more likely that B would have multiple possible causes, some of them indirect such as A is caused by B, and B is caused by either C or by D, but not by C and D at the same time.

Note that are related in causality, but some events are indirect causes and can't be said to always cause an indirect event. Events that are only related through symbolic meaning are synchronicities, and synchronicities that have subjective significance to one person may feel insignificant or go completely unnoticed by another, or the other person may fail to see the relationship between them. Causal relationships should be equally seen by all observers. You could connect distantly related events across dozens of levels of indirection, but that should lose any type of significance quickly because at some point it appears that anything can cause anything else, at any time, and it's not clear why it's not repeatable in every instance unless you wrap it in some type of mystical significance.

 

An interesting subject. I think it's quite easy to see where some superstitions come from.The number 13 is the number of Jesus apostles + 1, who represents Judas. 666 is also mentioned in the Bible as the number of the beast.

Walking under ladders is said to be breaking the triangle - I don't know really why that would be considered bad.

With some other things it's hard to know how they originated. A black cat crossing your path is said to be unlucky. In the rural area in which I used to live it was considered unlucky to see a magpie without touching your forelock. Weird stuff.
Both these things probably go back to Christian beliefs - in the middle ages it was believed that god made some animals and satan made others (cats. bats, snakes etc).

So all these things seem to come from periods when humans had very little knowledge of how things actually work. It must have been strange to live at a time when we didn't even know about bacteria and so on, so maybe it's not surprising that people's imaginations ran riot seeking the causes of misfortunes.

 

Short answer: superstitions are caused by gullible people.

Longer answer: The belief that the number thirteen is unlucky originates with early Christianity - thirteen people were at the Last Supper. (which, apart from anything else, completely disregards all the good things done by those same thirteen people). In some places, it's a lucky number.

Other superstitions might derive from ancient things that actually happened - if an influential person had a bucket of slop fall on his head as he walked under a ladder, then his opinion that walking under the ladder was unlucky for him would be believed and generalised by a lot of people, and the idea would take hold and spread.

 

Most of these superstitions developed prior to understanding of biology, psychology, access to information via technology, and occurred during times where illiteracy was rampant in large portions of the population. Bill makes a good point here.

I'll throw out some ideas based on psychology and biology to some irrational fears and superstition, keep in mind particularly with what I'll suggest regarding numbers is fairly speculative.

Something like an irrational fear of snakes is probably akin to a disorder like OCD. Some fear of snakes is probably intrinsic in most people and good if you are not familiar with the snake, as some snakes do bite with poisonous venom. The irrational part is an overconsuming fear, regardless of what the person is told, same may be applied to numbers and the consequences associated with those. The way snakes slither probably makes some people's minds recoil too because it is a movement we are not accustomed to seeing with animals of that size. Maybe with black cats, something about their luminiscent glowing eyes and fur color fading with the night darkness has something to do with that superstition.

For numbers, 13, traditionally is around the onset of puberty and also in many civilizations was close to the middle life expectancy. I also find it interesting how we count to twelve but then stop with the uniquely defined numbers and with 13 start streamlining the numbers based on 'teens.'

Similarly perhaps in Latin America there is a positive ritual based on age, and interestingly the numbers kind of follow a similar type of streamlining thereafter. The numbers in Spanish are all unique up to 15 which interestingly enough correlates with the quinceañera, a girl's right of passage ceremony to becoming a woman (or married). After that, the numbers streamline with
Dieci on 16.


Some superstitions probably have to do with a mix of biological/living conditions mixed with the cultural myths and understanding of the times.

 

This is not really to do directly with the topic, but the only other language I can count in is French, where the streamlining doesn't happen until you get to 17.

 

I think it does, as I said my ideas are speculative, more available information more insight. I couldn't find any correlating ceremony in French culture of a corresponding number based rite of passage.

I forgot Bar Mitzvah's occurred at 13, which could speak to the significance of that number but that doesn't speak towards anything in regards to phobia people have of it.

 

I guess I have some trouble understanding how someone of a sound mind can attach magical properties to objects or symbols. in the case of numbers they will appear often and somewhat randomly in everyday life. we're literally immersed in numbers, they are everywhere. most of them slip by unnoticed but people take more notice of the ones they have attached significance too. some numbers have interesting properties in math but they aren't universal outside of their application. symbols may have some significance and occur as memes for this reason but to actually believe the symbol itself has power to alter reality seems to me to be one of the least rational type of belief one could have.

the fact that the mechanism for this exists as part of our consciousness suggests that it serves some purpose, but rational it is not, and normally thoughts of this variety can be quickly discounted by doing a quick mental sanity check.

Do some people lack the same rationality? I have noticed that at least some people at least appear to utilize the rational part of the mind less, quickly jumping to conclusions without really thinking it through and considering logically or subjecting the idea to philosophical tests. Normally I am very analytical, and feel most complex things can be reduced to simple problems that can be answered seperately and determined to be either logically true or false.

 

The mind...

 

primal form of schizotypal behaviours,which if we read historical texts is nothing new,could have given rise to some superstitions and magical thinking.I'm not suggesting that schizophrenia existed as it does,but voice hearing,both internal and external to the mind,must have been very confusing for our tribal huntsman.

The thing with schizophrenia is that we tend to give cosmic significance to random connections and often lead to beliefs in higher powers and all kind of esoteric mumbo jumbo.Schizophrenia consists of a wide array of seemingly unrelated symptoms,and is not widely understood.My main point here is that the madness of Adam and Eve may have given rise to much superstitious thinking,which then becomes encoded into the wide range of strange and fascinating belief systems studied by anthropologists.In Bali for example even today there are dark magicians who will prepare a voodoo doll for his client to place under the victims bed to cause them great misfortune or even death.Many Balinese believe in it.If the voodoo works when the victim finds the day and they experience misfortune,is that real magic because the belief system is so strong in some Balinese that it actually causes detriment to their bio-system.My conclusion is that the power of thinking as it relates to our physical bodies is not to be underated.

 

It maybe inappropriate to say C is a direct cause of A, however C is still a cause of A, because with the direct cause of B, it allows for the direct cause of A.

If we isolate this other instance and variable, C is no longer the direct cause of B either.

 

Wonderful topic to discuss.....from your mind.....
Superstitions...

black cat crosses your path...bad luck
don't step on the crack it will break your mother's back
break a mirror...7 years bad luck
crow circling....death is near....
13...unlucky number
666 sign of devil

and countless others....

These are some of the superstitious sayings.....and beliefs
How is that any more mentally ill than in believing there is a god who will make everything all right? Some say the religious are mentally ill, too.
They are just learned superstitions for most people.....where they originated? who knows?
the scriptures for some like 666?
other people's made up things?
who knows?
but they get passed on and taken in as truth for some people if you hear them enough....they get ingrained.
I am not superstitious personally....never was....but nor am I religious....

numbers...another topic altogether....for some....they are a way to communicate....coding.....not for me....but I see....again learned....associations and perceptions.....some unpleasant associations...but not superstitions....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLm3HMG8IhM

 

13th of july would be the day prior to the storming of the Bastille, otherwise I can't think of any other French connection.

 

The danger in superstitions is that if one believes full heartedly in any of them, and then say a crow happens to be circling over you and you think I am gonna die.......and full heartedly believe that...your own belief could cause such a tragedy.....so therein lies the danger of superstitions.....

extreme example here to make the point only.

 

actually it was A that was caused by B .. trivial I know .. .

so are u saying that if we have this system, and observe the effect "A" which is caused by B, what happens when C is removed from the system completely? Effect A will still occur and be caused by B but neither of them are caused by C. without knowing what A Band C are exactly it might be hard to follow but assume that the event B is always the same and that A and B are always the same event when ignoring details involving how exactly B occurred. Let's assume that B is its own system with more than trivial complexity and has multiple mechanisms to produce the end effect which is the same but internally occur for very different reasons. B could have several causal inputs, each with different statistical weights.

I'm actually not really sure what the correct treatment of this scenario is, and some of the uncertainty may be semantics, and the fact that this is am abstract system and its tricky to know which level of abstraction is being referred to and where you draw the lines between them.

I was trying to use this example as a simple prototype for a possibly much more involved abstract system with arbitrary complexity without having to design a confusing system.

I didn't mention a specific relationship between between B, C and D, only the relationship of them to A. It's also not required that the system appear the same from both ends, I.e the effects will trickle down to A but not necessarily reversible in a predictable way without having knowledge of the entire system in its entirety.

 

You are qualifying variables now, so I cannot speak to what the effects may be as you did not present any of this in the original argument.

I am solely speaking from a logical standpoint based on relationships.

I.E. if you are A, and your dad is B, and your granddad is C, you are a cause from C though not directly. If we introduce grandma D, your relationship to C does not change.

However if we isolate the matrilineal instance of your dad's relationship, then we just have D.

 

Norepinephrine probably plays an integral role in fear based phobias that aren't necessarily culturally indoctrinated.

This neurotransmitter is largely responsible for "fight or flight" type responses.

 

Ive been in plenty of buildings with a 13th floor..