Why You Believe In Ghosts, Even Though You Know Better

When Halloween rolls around, talk of witches, haunted houses and black cats is all in good fun -- right? Maybe not. For a surprising number of Americans, these scary symbols represent something real. A 2010 Gallup poll found that 20 percent of Americans believe in witches and 37 percent believe that houses can be haunted. Overall, three in four Americans have at least one paranormal belief, according to the Gallup data. But even if we don't harbor beliefs in the supernatural, many of us engage in superstitious thought or behavior without even thinking about it. When was the last time you knocked on wood, blamed an unlucky occurance on Mercury slipping into retrograde, or found yourself unwittingly avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk? Psychologist Susan Whitbourne calls superstitions some of our "most fascinating, and yet least studied, everyday behaviors." "Superstition is a belief or behavior that has two features: One is that it is aimed at bringing about good luck or avoiding bad, and the second is that it's not supported by what we know of science and typically makes reference to some sort of magical influence," Stuart Vyse, professor of psychology at Connecticut College and author of Believing In Magic, tells The Huffington Post. "It would be labeled magical because it isn't supported by our common understanding of science." Astrology in particular is becoming an increasingly accepted superstitious belief, according to the recent Science and Engineering ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news