Blog Entry 7 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

People cling to superstitious rituals because they think they work. Could this be explained in terms of operant conditioning principles?

Operant conditioning is a type of learning. There are multiple types of conditioning this chapter mentions. With operant conditioning it is when behavior becomes more likely to recur when the decision you've made is followed by reinforcement. If your behavior or decision is followed by punishment then it is less likely that you would behave or do whatever you did to be punished again. It is a pretty straight forward concept. To put into example this learning condition say a child were to clean their room without being asked, it is very likely that their parents would be proud and say "good job" or "that's awesome". Allowing the child to feel accomplished thus making it more likely that they will do it again. In contrast to that, say the child were to talk back to their parents when asked to clean their room. It is likely that the parent would come up with some kind of punishment for the child to go to their room or to not allow them to have dinner. With this punishment for the child's own action, they would likely not want to talk back to their parents again because no child wants to be punished with having to be cooped up for the rest of the day or go without eating dinner. The same goes with behavior in adults, but I would imagine adults would have more morals and common sense to not do something that would lead them to be punished. 

With the idea that superstitious rituals are linked to operant conditioning can indeed be a factor of the recipient believing they work. A lot of superstition comes from culture or social aspects and the stories our parents tell us as kids. By using common examples such as "you shouldn't walk under a  ladder" or "you shouldn't open an umbrella inside" a lot of people can relate or have heard of these superstitions. Now where have we heard these superstitions? When did we first here of them? Are they actually true in the way that if you do what these superstitions tell you not to that it leads to bad luck? It was probably a long time ago that you first heard of these but when approaching a ladder I'm sure if you've heard of that superstition that you would walk around it. Maybe when you were younger you did walk under a ladder and someone told you not to do that because it causes bad luck. With the feeling of being told off and not per se punished but informed it is most likely from that point on you didn't want to walk under another ladder because of that confrontation. 

One more example of the link between superstition and operant conditioning I would like to bring attention to to further support the connection is superstition in a positive way. I have a friend that is a great track and field athlete. She's won a bunch of races in her high school career. Often before every race she would mentally prepare herself and as she's setting herself up in the blocks to begin the race she kisses her rings. I've asked her before why she does that and her answer was that she had this superstition that whenever she would kiss her rings that were given to her by her close family she did better in her races. The reason for her superstition was due to the first race she ever won, it had been the first time she kissed her rings for good luck. Ever since then she's believed that she always does better when she kisses her rings for good luck and maybe it's a placebo for her or gives her more confidence because it worked for her. So in this case of operant conditioning she is reinforced rather than punished, she feels rewarded through her superstition so she continues to do what she thinks contributes to her.