Don't cross my path!: Superstitions may seem daft, but maybe there's more to it.
Credit: iStockphoto
Interesting, yet speculative
Mark Stokes an evolutionary psychologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, said that while the internal mental processes that lead to superstitious beliefs are also important, this work is significant in that proposes a potential value to these beliefs. "It is an interesting proposition, but it needs to be empirically tested," he said.
Though the model is purely theoretical at this stage, "it does make a number of testable predictions," countered Foster. "The goal is to produce a logical framework to start to understand the evolution of superstition."
Andrew Lewis, also a psychologist at Deakin University, and not one of the study authors, said that if further tests could prove that a propensity for holding mistaken beliefs was favoured by evolution it might have implications for our understanding of mental health problems too.
He said that delusional schizophrenics often hold on to irrational beliefs despite evidence to the contrary.
"There is a substantial debate in this literature as to why conditions such as schizophrenia have not been eliminated via selection if they reduce reproductive fitness," Lewis explained. "However if there is positive selection for traits that predispose us towards accepting [irrational] beliefs, then delusions are only an extension of the same capacity."
Does this explain Human behviour, though?
While it may be true that touching wood, or not stepping on cracks has no real 'cost' to the subject, it has no conceivable benefit either. So unless this research simply explains "People may sometimes do small things in the name of superstition, this is why", it doesn't really answer why these specific superstitions have garnered a following -- or, more importantly, why humans do things which require huge amounts of 'cost', like adhering to life-altering religions.
Possibly...
Perhaps a crack indicated a weakness or fault in a path, and if you stepped on it it might give way and you would fall through. Perhaps touching wood derived from hiding behind a tree. And perhaps life-altering religions defined some rules of behavior that permitted groups of people to co-exist.
Statistics
I think this study is more along the lines of a statistical study in that if you look at an individual event you cannot draw any worthwhile conclusion but over a large(r) sample then you should be able to pick a general trend.
Granville
"Super" is the problem still
That these behaviors are meant to shield us from possible harm is good, that this is of "supernatural" affiliation is the problem still.