Ricerc@Sapienza

Persistence of superstitions in the modern era could be justified by considering them as a by-product of the brain’s capacity to detect associations and make assumptions about cause-effect relationships. This ability, which supports predictive behaviour, directly relates to associative learning. We tested whether variability in superstitious behaviour reflects individual variability in the efficiency of mechanisms akin to habit learning. Forty-eight individuals performed a Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) or an Implicit Cuing Task (ICT).