6. The future of superstition

People have been fascinated with superstition for a very long time, and that fascination is unlikely to end soon. ‘The future of superstition’ looks at the various areas of superstition research undertaken by psychologists and sociologists. Perhaps the most popular area of research today is the role of superstition in consumer choice. This effort has probably been encouraged by the rapid growth of the Chinese consumer market. Superstition is a transactional concept. It has no inherent meaning of its own and only gains meaning in relation to some different, more accepted world-view. Today that more accepted view is most often the accumulated knowledge of science, but, as we have seen, fashions can change.

5. The psychology of superstition

Holding superstitious beliefs in a time when the fruits of science are all around us seems somewhat paradoxical, so why do people believe? ‘The psychology of superstition’ considers the prevalence and demographics of superstitious belief. Research shows that belief in luck is correlated with belief in superstition and that they correlate with a number of personality dimensions and traits that are, in most cases, not particularly desirable, such as stress, anxiety, seeking control, pessimism, and depression. How do people learn superstitions and what sustains their superstitious behaviour? The great majority of common superstitions are relatively inexpensive and harmless and they may help reduce anxiety and provide a welcome illusion of control.

4. Superstition in the modern world

After the years of rapid scientific progress that followed the Enlightenment, the label ‘superstitious’, with rare exceptions, was now applied to unscientific beliefs that defied reason. Despite the growing dominance of scientific reasoning, superstition, pseudoscience, and magical thinking did not go away. ‘Superstitions in the modern world’ first considers 19th-century spiritualism, a social movement that kept supernatural beliefs alive before science became a more mature enterprise. It then turns to the kinds of popular superstitions that survive today from lucky and unlucky numbers and colours to certain objects and behaviours and discusses their origins. It also looks at some more elaborate systems of superstition.

3. The secularization of superstition

The five centuries beginning with the 14th and ending with the 18th took European history from the Middle Ages, through the Enlightenment, and into the first two centuries of the scientific age, which would mark the final turn in the meaning of superstition. ‘The secularization of superstition’ explains that this passage involved the flourishing of the humanities associated with the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and great advances in science—as well as deadly wars, plagues, inquisitions, and witch hunts. But the culmination of this period would produce the Enlightenment, a new age of reason, and a different form of attack on superstition and magic.

2. Religious superstition

Under Theodosius I (r. 379–95) Christianity became the Roman Empire’s official religion and the word superstitio was now used against those who once used it against Christians. ‘Religious superstition’ describes the rising concerns over magic and superstition during the last centuries of the first millennium ce. A number of edicts against superstition, magic, and pagan religious practices were produced and working magicians and sorcerers were forced to renounce their practices or face death. Fears about demonic magic swelled during the 14th century, but a much more ominous threat emerged that would be a considerable worry for the next four centuries: conspiratorial groups of demon-worshipping black magicians alleged secret societies of witches.

1. The origins of superstition

‘The origins of superstition’ describes practices of magic, prophecy, and divination in the ancient world, and the changing meaning of superstition through time. Throughout its long history, superstition has been a transactional concept with no fixed meaning of its own except in contrast to some other, more accepted world-view. The origin of the concept is found in ancient Greece in the 4th century bce, and for the next 2,000 years, superstition stood in contrast to the religious practices recommended by the elites. The word ‘superstition’ has often been levelled at practices that, even today, we would consider magical or paranormal, and yet versions of most of these practices are still with us.