The NY Times has a good article looking at research into the roots of superstition, ranging from lucky totems to sports fandom to magic (it makes clear it's talking about something distinct from faith).
I'm fascinated with this stuff - I have a degree in psychology and really should know better, but I still have my lucky rituals. According to the article, the idea that people can affect the outcome of events with their thoughts, wishes and rituals is "far more common than people acknowledge" and has evolutionary roots in the wiring of the brain. It's related to pattern recognition, and also to how our emotional brain can trump rationality. And it has some survival benefits: "the sense of having special powers buoys people in threatening
situations, and helps soothe everyday fears and ward off mental
distress."
But maybe it's not just superstition. The article doesn't get into this, but some psychologists and quantum physicists are starting to wonder if indeed our thoughts can, in a fashion, create reality. A subject of a lot of recent discussion in the personal coaching and self-help world is the idea of the "Law of attraction" - positive thinking can beget positive outcomes, and negative thinking negative outcomes. A documentary film and book on the subject, called "The Secret," is becoming a huge underground hit (I watched it a few weeks ago and despite some cheesy production values, it's quite interesting). And anecdotally, I've noticed recently an increase in people talking seriously about this stuff, without skepticism or irony.
My brain's too tired to figure out what it all means. But fortunately the always interesting John Grant has some related ruminations on the little rituals we all have, and the brands that sometimes are a part of them.
Thank goodness for John. But on this subject I'll leave the final word to Stevie:
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