Evening Star Newspaper, March 13, 1932, Page 79

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 13, 193.. e HOW SU In Spite of Our Boasts About Our Civilization,More Than Half of Us Cling to a Child-Like Faith in Absurd Beliefs and Omens. BY MARJORIE VAN DE W ATER. UPPOSE you were walking past a grave- yard on the night of Friday the 13th in the dark of the moon and saw a falling star come down just as a black cat crossed your path. And you heard a dog howl and an own hoot three times. And then a church bell tolled out thé bour of midnight. Would you be scared? And would you cross your fingers and wish for a rabbit's foot? Probably you are not superstitious enough to think that all these things mean anything in determining your fate. But a great many persons in the United States do believe in superstitious omens of good or bad luck—either these or others like them. Even educated persons may cling to a faith in omens which they learned in their early childhood. And, though their good sense tells them that superstition is foolish, yet habit will make them persist in acting as though such trivial incidents could change the course ©of human events. Just how common magical thinking is, is shown by the results of a questionnaire dis- tributed by Dr. A, O. Bowden, president of the New Mexico State Teachegs’ College, among the parents of elementary school pupils in cer- tain cities in 14 States scattered widely over the Union from New Hampshire to Georgia and west to California. These results will soon be published in book form. Y magical thinking Dr. Bowden does not necessarily mean belief in such age-old say- ings as those listed abave, but fallacious reason- ing based on false ideas of a cause-and-effect relationship where such a relation does not exist For example, one of his questions was as fol- Jows: “Do you believe that fish is a better brain food than bacon?” The belief that eating fish will improve school- grades is an example of the fallacious thinking which Dr. Bowden calls magical thinking. For it is based on the fact that the tissues of the brain are rich in phosphorus, and that fish also contains phosphorus. Scientists know that the brain is nourished, as is the rest of the body, by the blood, and that fish has no more value as a brain food than any other egually nourishing food. The belief that it has such special properties is akin to that which holds that “every part strengthens its part”; that is, that the person with a liver ailment should eat liver, the run- ner confine his diet to pig's feet, and perhaps that the lover should be served generous por- tions of roast heart. R. BOWDEN found that 59 per cent of the general public and 32 per cent of teachers believe that eating fish improves the brain, He found that 85 per cemt of the popula- tion believe that beautiful pictures or fine mpusic in the home or school will make people moral or virtuous. And 75 per cent of teachers hold this view. That most of the Americans represented in Dr. Bowden's test are extremely optimistic re- garding their own fate is shown by the answers to another question. “If you have a good education, good health, work hard and be morally right, do you think there is some force or power that will inevitably make things come out right for you in any sit- uation?” it was asked. “Yes!” answered 66 per cent, or two-thirds of the general population. “Yes!” answered 62 per cent of the teachers. “Do you believe that the great majority of American people, by reason of their innate ability to tell right from wrong, will naturally take the right side of any big public question in the State or Nation when allowed to vote on it?” To this question, 84 per cent of the non- Many people believe that if two per- sons pass on opposite sides of & thing & means bad luck. OOA PERSTITIOUS ARE YOU? GON~ GRANEYARD ON FRIDAY “THE TWIRTEENTH AND — oo teachers and 79 per cent of the teachers answered “yes.” This despite the fact that many reforms have been urged for years before a favorable vote was secured. R. BOWDEN believes that these figures indi- cate that notwithstanding the fact that public schools are available all over the land, America is not nearly so well educated as is generally believed, Anthropologists, studying the different races of mankind, are also impressed with the extent to which the civilized world clings to magical thought—superstition and supernatural explan- Will you have bad luck if you walk under a ladder? ations of natural events. Dr. Clark Wissler, prominent scientist connected with the Ameri- can Museum of Natural History in New York, recently pointed out to a meeting of scientists the extent to which magic still persists in mod- ern life. “It appears,” he said, “that civilization has developed from a primitive background and still contains the same methods of thought as functioned on primitive levels, and that magic and supernaturalism still play a very large part in modern life.” But the psychologist asserts that aithough the advance of science may be expected grad- ually to wipe out magic and belief in weird explanations of ordinary matters, still the very rapid development of science in this age may make it difficult or well nigh impossible for the mind of man to keep abreast. Prof. Edgar James Swift, head of the de- partment of psychology of Washington Uni- versity, St. Louis, in a new book, “The Jungle of the Mind,” says that the recent stupendous discoveries of science have put people into an expectant, credulous attitude in which they are inclined to see nothing as impossible, nothing absurd. A FEW years ago it was necessary, in order to speak to a person to approach within calling distance. Now one can speak through a radio microphone. To the person who does not understand the scientific principles which make this possible, it may seem no more incredible that persons at a distance should be able to cemmunicate without the aid of the radio merely by “pro- Jecting their thoughts.” Thus it becomes daily meore difficult to dis- tinguish between the true and the untrue, the real and the unreal, the scientific and the magical. And even educated persons are taken in by superstitions, new and old. Your boy may search in vain through his textbook in an effort to find out whether “lightning never strikes twice in the same place.” He will probably find nothing to in- dicate whether the direction of the points of the new moon has anything to do with the dryness or wetness of the month following. Probably the subjects of toads and warts, four- leafed clover and luck, cold hands and warm heart, and high foreheads and intelligence are all sadly neglected. Consequently, high school graduates, and col- lege graduates, too, continue to hear these things and hearing them, believe them or are influenced by them. R. OTIS W. CALDWELL and Gerhard E. Lundeen of the Institute of School Ex- perimentation, Teachers’, College, Columbia University, gathereq together a list of 200 un- founded beliefs—not all those that are regarded as important, but enough to serve as a basis for an interesting experiment. The whole list of 200 was given in the form of a test to more than a thousand high school seniors and college students. Each person was asked to indicate after each belief whether he had heard of it, whether he believed it and also whether his actions were ever influenced by it. The following beliefs selected from the list will give you an idea of what is was like: Fat people are always good-natured. Dew falls from the sky. . If you tickle a baby you will cause it to stutter. If the groundhog sees his shadow on ground- hog day there will be six weeks of bad weather. Seven is a lucky number. Dreams go by contraries. Good people die young. T was found that high school seniors on an average have heard of approximately half the 200 items in the list. They believe in about 20 per cent of those with which they are familiar. They say, however, that they are influenced by even more of the ideas than they actually believe, 22 per cent. More than 80 per cent of the high school seniors who had heard the saying believe that when the plumage of birds is very heavy, that fact foretells a severe Winter. But they are not s0 credulous regarding all the sayings. Al- though two-thirds had heard that a witch can and sometimes does conceal her identity in the form of a black cat, only 2 per cent were inclined to fear a dark-hued kitty for this reason This information on what public school grad- uates actually believe will aid teachers in revis- ing the science course to hit directly at preva- lent unfounded beliefs—showing the youngsters which ideas are false and why they cannot be true. Some indication of the great number of old superstitious sayings that are still current in the United States and influencing life and be- havior to a greater or lesser extent is given by another list compiled by students of the Wis- consin State Teachers’ College, under the di- rection of Profs. J. O. Frank and H. W. Talbot, A total of 488 students made individual lists of superstitions they knew to exist in the com- munity. Altogether, 1,244 different supersti- tions were reported. OME of these were very common. “A black cat brings bad luck,” appeared on all but four of the lists. “Finding a horseshoe brings good luck,” was reported by 442. ‘“Breaking a mirror brings bad luck,” was reflected on 411 lists. Perhaps you would like to test yourself— and your neighbors—to see how much influence superstition has in your community. Here is & list of the more common superstitions. How many of them, if any, influence your daily actions? 1. Friday the thirteenth is a very unlucky day. 2. Thirteen peopl® at a table—death or bad luck. . Walking under a ladder brings bad lck. . Sing before breakfast—cry before night. . Four-leafed clover brings good luck. . A rabbit's foot brings good luck. . Dog howls at night—a death follows. 8. Groundhog sees his shadow on ground- hog day—six weeks of bad weather. 9. Two persons walk on opposite sides of an object—bad luck. 10. Drop silver at table—company coming, 11. Warts removed by various charms. 12. Clothing on wrong—bad luck to change. 13. Amber beads will prevent goiter. THOSE were the most common superstitions reported. The following list is even more interesting—these were some of the more un- common beliefs, appearing only on 20 lists: If you put your clothing on wrong, wil it mean bad luck to change it? 1. Enter front door—leave back door—bad luck. . Put on left shoe first—good luck, . Northern lights bright—bad weather. . Job started on Friday—never finished. . Three lamps in a row—marriage. . Last rehearsal poor—play will be good. . Cow moos in night—some one dying. 8. When a man dies in town—two more are soon to follow. 9. Tell bad dreams before breakfast—dream comes true. 10. See bright object—kick it three times before picking it up—devil kicked out. 11. Stub your toe—you will get a scolding. tlZ. Get up on wrong side of bed—cross all y. 13. Rain on wedding day—wedding will be unlucky. Many of the superstitions listed in the above tables are rare, of covrse, But many of them, also, are extremely common—as the prevalence of the habit of knocking on wood, for ex- ample, proves. People who ordinarily seem well educated and enlightened often are in- fluenced by them: and the superintendents of many office buildings omit number 13 in num- bering floors!