Are you superstitious? If you are how superstitious are you? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

[KSigkid]

I used to be superstitious with sports stuff, like using the same bat/batting gloves/etc. all the time if I was on a hitting streak. In my daily life though, not so much.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I usually stay at home on Friday the 13th, just because I've had a couple spectacularly crappy Friday the 13ths.

This just reminded me of a HORRIBLE time when some bullies from school got a hold of my diary. They read all about my Friday the 13th which happened to be horribly embarassing. I had almost forgotten about that!!

I don't step on gravestones because I feel like it's rude. It's like stepping on someone's head! Silly, but I don't think anything bad will happen if I do. And I read in a Babysitters' Club book that you should hold your breath when passing a graveyard or else you'll inhale a spirit. I still do that but really just to see if I can hold my breath that long (I usually can't).

ETA: Oooh, I did just think of one. It's a HUGE superstition at my job that you NEVER EVER EVER say "It's been quiet all day/night." It's like saying "Macbeth" at a theater. That totally jinxes it and the patients all start acting up after that. Whenever someone does (usually the new person), we all groan and say "Dangit, she said the q-word!!!" Sometimes things stay okay, but tooooo many times I've seen that one actually come true.

[LucyKKG]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

It's like saying "Macbeth" at a theater.

Omg, I did that once, and I was like "Noooo!" My drama friends made me go outside, turn around three times, and curse. (I think that was it.)

I used to either lift my feet up off the floor or touch a screw in the car when driving past a graveyard. I still hold my breath going through tunnels, but I just do that because it's fun to see how long I can do it.

I tap the dashboard when I see a police car. A guy I dated briefly said it was good luck. Whatever, not like I'm a delinquent!

Hmm...I'll add more if I think of them.

[WinniBug]

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

Omg, I did that once, and I was like "Noooo!" My drama friends made me go outside, turn around three times, and curse. (I think that was it.)

I used to either lift my feet up off the floor or touch a screw in the car when driving past a graveyard. I still hold my breath going through tunnels, but I just do that because it's fun to see how long I can do it.

I tap the dashboard when I see a police car. A guy I dated briefly said it was good luck. Whatever, not like I'm a delinquent!

Hmm...I'll add more if I think of them.

My mom said you're supposed to lift your feet when you go over railroad tracks

[SOPi_Jawbreaker]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Before I eat an apple, I twist the stem while saying the alphabet. The letter at which the stem comes off is the initial of my future husband.

Come onnnnnnn G!

We used to do this with soda tabs.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I always make a wish at 11:11! I am so corny.

Originally Posted by WinniBug

I make wishes at 11:11...

wtf. so do i...

and FWIW, i always look at my phone at 7:22pm. not exactly superstition, but sometimes its hard to shake habits.

ETA: ALL of my LSs believe in that "split the pole" thing. i think theyre crazy. and one of them yells "bread and butter" when you sweep over someone's foot. i guess spitting on the broom is too unsanitary, so yelling out things that go together makes perfect sense.

[DSTRen13]

My dad is convinced that eating certain meals before games will help his team win. If it makes him happy and optimistic, then they are probably at least a little more likely to win (he's the coach) So I suppose it's like sugar pills - superstitions can make themselves come true.

As a sidenote, I don't see why on earth anyone would step on a grave ... that's pretty much just wrong, superstition or no

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by WinniBug

Not walking under a ladder stemmed from a Christian superstition....it was believed that if you walked under a ladder, you were splitting the Holy Trinity and therefore no better than the devil.

I'm trying to figure out how a ladder - with two parts, or four if you count each leg - represents the Holy TRINITY . . . hmmmmm . . . do you know from which country this came from? I'm interested.

[Scandia]

I am not superstitious at all. The only rational superstition is the one about not walking below a ladder- which is more of a safety precaution than of a superstition. When I see a black cat I say "here kitty kitty"- ok, so I do that when I see any kind of cat.

[WinniBug]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I'm trying to figure out how a ladder - with two parts, or four if you count each leg - represents the Holy TRINITY . . . hmmmmm . . . do you know from which country this came from? I'm interested.

[SWTXBelle]

A-ha!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

ETA: Oooh, I did just think of one. It's a HUGE superstition at my job that you NEVER EVER EVER say "It's been quiet all day/night." It's like saying "Macbeth" at a theater. That totally jinxes it and the patients all start acting up after that. Whenever someone does (usually the new person), we all groan and say "Dangit, she said the q-word!!!" Sometimes things stay okay, but tooooo many times I've seen that one actually come true.

My boss does this kind of crap all the time. After I'd been at this job about 3 months, he says "I haven't had a server crash in over a year!" and BAM, a server crashed that day. Now, when he starts to say something like that, I stop him "Shhhh, don't jinx us!"

[tld221]

to Rashid (and Winnibug, as i posted in the wrong thread): make a wish!

I don't consider myself superstitious at all, but one thing I never do is turn my back to the ocean.

We've got a lot of local superstitions here: don't whistle at night (you'll attract ghosts); don't cut your nails at night (it's bad luck); putting jars of water on your lawn/yard will prevent dogs/cats pooping on your property; a huge black moth in or outside of your house means a deceased loved one has come to visit; never point in a cemetery (it's bad luck); if a young kid bends down and looks between his legs that means mom and dad will be expecting a new one soon...the list is endless.

My most favorite one, though, is the one about chopsticks in your rice. Never, ever stick your chopsticks upright in your rice bowl. It's bad luck, or as the Japanese call it, bachi.

[cheerfulgreek]

This is very interesting. I haven't read all of the posts yet, but there was a Gallup poll that was taken in 2005 that showed 41% of Americans profess belief in ESP. A similar study conducted in 2006 in Poland by the Public Opinion Research Center showed that 30% of Polish citizens claim that star signs affect a person's character. There was also an earlier European study that was done in the UK that said 74% of respondents claimed they knock on wood for good luck. I saw this on the History Channel. They were also talking about how it's related to some kind of evolutionary theory, adaptive traits and stuff like that. There was more, I just can't remember all of it. But I really don't think that different kinds of superstitions need to be explained using just one evolutionary mechanism, it just may be that different kinds of superstititions have different evolutionary explanations, and only some of them may be adaptive. Really though, Who the hell knows?

After watching this, it kind of changed my opinion on this subject slightly. I think that phenomena such as superstition kind of forces us to look at reason from a more consistently scientific point of view. While I think it can be the opposite of reason, on the other hand I also think that it can be looked at as being naturalized similarly to reason. Another possibility that I found to be more persuasive than what the show was saying, was the fact that it could actually be a by-product. What I mean by this is it may not even have any adaptive value in itself, it may just be linked to a trait which may be adaptive. But then again, I may be looking into this too hard.

Oh, and it was also talking about how superstition may be related to cognitive illusions too. It was really good, I enjoyed it. I had been waiting all week long to watch it. It was very interesting. I TiVo'd it.