'Very superstitious': Professor explores reasons for believing in luck

"How far will you go to avoid bad luck?" writes Cynthia Mills, of Inside Science News Service. Mills explains that if you avoid walking under ladders or perform special rituals – say, before getting on an airplane – then you are among many animals that practice superstitious behavior, even when evidence may contradict it.

A new study published in Animal Behaviour suggests multiple reasons for such anomalies to exist and cites the work of Peter R. Killeen, emeritus professor of psychology at ASU, who studied pigeons in 1977 and found that they could judge cause and effect as well as humans, "at least when they had all the information they needed."

"Today Killeen concludes that insufficient data or 'prior beliefs' could guide birds to the wrong conclusions" – but he says that, sometimes, simpler answers suffice.

"'For beasts like us who are never quite sure that we are well enough informed, taking that multivitamin and knocking wood puts the semblance of control back in our hands, and that feels good,' Killeen said."