Walking Under a Ladder: A Field Experiment on Superstitious Behavior
Superstitions affect all of us to varying degrees. Pedestrians will cross the street rather than encounter a black cat and bad luck. Bowlers and pitchers often display stereotyped behaviors before throwing the ball in order to bring good luck. Even nonbelievers cannot avoid superstitions. Just try to find a thirteenth floor in many a skyscraper. In spite of the prevalence of superstitious behavior in our society, little systematic work has been done on superstitious behavior in humans. Although there are some early correlational studies attempting to relate superstitiousness to intelligence (Powers, 1931) and to age and sex (Maller & Lundeen, 1933), experimental investigations of superstitious behaviors are lacking. The present study attempted to fill this gap by demonstrating that a model can influence a very common type of superstitious behavior, not walking under a ladder. Specifically, our primary hypothesis was that a person would be more likely to walk under a ladder after he observed a model walking under the ladder than when no model preceded him. Our hypothesis on the effects of a model was suggested by the various studies demonstrating the influence of a model in situations in which a norm is available to guide an individual in choosing between behavioral alternatives. For example, Bryan and Test (1967) found that the presence of a model increased the likelihood of helping on the part of observers. Lefkowitz, Blake, and Mouton (1955) found that pedestrian violations of a traffic signal at an intersection were significantly more likely to occur if a model was present who disobeyed the prohibition of walking against a traffic signal. It was believed that modeling would operate with regard to superstitious behavior that was normative in a manner similar to other normative behaviors, such as in the Lefkowitz, Blake, and Mouton study above. Our second prediction was that a model would have a differential effect on ladder avoidance only when not walking under the ladder was illogical or superstitious; i.e., when it is not in use. The model, however, was not expected to have a differential effect when there was