Researchers are finding evidence that superstitions may not be as pointless at all. By adopting a belief that you can - or cannot - do something to affect a desired outcome, you're among the cadre of beings that learn.
Superstition is an evolutionary surprise - it makes no sense for organisms to believe a specific action influences the future when it can't. Yet superstitious behavior can be recognized in many animals, not just humans. Superstitions are not free - there are rituals and avoidances cost. The question becomes how can natural selection create, or simply allow for, such inappropriate behavior?
"From an evolutionary perspective, superstitions seem maladaptive," said Kevin Abbott, biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa and co-author of a recent study published in Animal Behavior.
The study suggests multiple reasons for such anomalies to exist: perhaps superstition is adaptive as a placebo, or for social bonding. Or maybe it really is maladaptive now, but is "the outcome of traits that were adaptive in ancestral environment," said Abbott
