Since ancient times, people believed in special "signs of fate" that could warn them of an impending danger or a favorable outcome. Today, despite scientific and technological progress, there are still many loyal fans of various signs and superstitions.
Belief in the "signs of fate" is the result of the joint work of the human brain (self-hypnosis) and certain environmental factors. People subconsciously try to connect the events of their own life with a variety of phenomena.
The faith of most people in signs has repeatedly become the subject of research by scientists. So, a group of psychologists at Harvard University decided to find out why almost everyone is more or less subject to superstition. After conducting a special study, they revealed that faith in signs is an integral part of the adaptive behavior of all people who want to explain for themselves the complex phenomena of the world.
Moreover, the signs themselves directly affect the mood of a person, forcing him to unconsciously expect events that were "predicted from above". That is, people are psychologically attuned to a positive or negative wave, and often get exactly what they expected.
Scientists from the University of London also took a serious approach to studying the problem of people's faith in signs. After conducting a survey of more than 5, 000 Britons, Professor Stella McGuire came to an interesting and rather unexpected conclusion: superstitious people live much longer than their skeptical brothers. 97% of respondents over 90 years of age were serious about signs, superstitions, and predictions. Among people over 80 years of age, 93% were.
This led scientists to the idea that belief in signs makes a person more cautious and prudent, allows him to carefully consider his own actions and actions. In addition, superstitions prepare people for possible failure, reliably protecting them from stress and guilt for an unsuccessful result.
Related article
Why is it undesirable to give a watch