superstitious

B. F. Skinner defined "superstitious" behavior as behavior under the control of noncontingent reinforcement, or reinforcement occurring without any causal connection with the organism's behavior. ("Superstition in the Pigeon", 1948) In humans, we call it "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc." We are...

I work at UT and with 50,000 students plus faculty and staff all looking for a parking space at the same time and it can be a real pain. The permits are expensive and they really only give you the right to hunt for a spot. There’s a parking garage right near where I work but it is $8 a day...

One of my dogs barks whenever there is thunder or fireworks nearby. She even barks at lightning which precedes thunder. That part is easy to grasp based on Pavlovian principles. After many pairings with lightning preceding thunder, she has formed a CS ->US association. But I wonder if she...

This is something interesting I just learned about the company I work for. I was under the impression that we had 18 stores, numbered from 1-18. Well, I recently learned that the number 13 is skipped so we really have 17 stores. I assume it is because of the unlucky 13 superstition. Anyone...

As you may know, Skinner (1948) showed that hungry pigeons demonstrated "superstitious" behavior when given access to some grain every 15 s. This is termed noncontigent positive reinforcement. My mix Malamute-Shepard barked at thunder from the day we got her. I thought that her barking might...

You know?

Hi everyone! I´ve been around these forums for weeks but only signed up today. Looking forward to some great discussion and getting to know you all! :) I´ve been thinking about this one for a while. Why are women more superstitious than men? As we can see here (and many other better polls)...