冥冥之中很玄乎 迷信并非一无是处

It starts when people try something different-Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola, a blue tie instead of the old red one-and find that something good happens.
在一旦尝试了新东西──百事可乐替代可口可乐，用蓝领带替代旧的红领带──之后有好事发生，很多人就会变得迷信起来。

Soon, without realizing it, someone who wouldn't think twice about, say, walking under a ladder or traveling on Friday the 13th begins to associate their new behavior with good luck-and starts reaching for the Pepsi again and again.
那些人虽然毫不介意走在梯子下面、不介意在恰逢13号的周五这天出远门，但他们很快也开始不自觉地将好运气和这些新行为相关联，然后就一听接着一听地喝起了百事可乐。

Such 'conditioned superstitions' can develop when people believe there is something they can do to control a situation, despite there being no rational reason to think so, says Gita Johar, a professor of business at Columbia University who recently co-wrote a paper on the phenomenon. Recent research shows that superstitions that increase the illusion of control can help people find meaning and psychological comfort-and in some cases, even boost performance.
哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)商业教授乔哈尔(Gita Johar)说，如果人们在没有合理依据的情况下相信他们可以通过做某些事来控制某一局面，这种“条件性迷信”(conditioned superstition) 就产生了。乔哈尔近期曾就这一现象与人合写了一篇论文。近期研究显示，这种能强化控制幻觉的迷信能够帮助人们找到事情的意义，获得心理安慰，有时甚至能提升业绩。

People who have both a high need for control and a sense of helplessness in a given situation-such as the straight-A perfectionist who didn't have time to study for an exam-are the most likely to succumb to conditioned superstition, researchers say.
研究人员说，那些特别想要控制局面同时又在特定情境下感到无能为力的人──比如一个要求成绩全A、但又没时间复习考试的完美主义者──最有可能受到“条件性迷信”的影响。

And while such superstitions can be broken, says Dr. Johar, it often takes a lot of negative evidence before people are willing to part with their lucky rituals. That's because they 'provide some sort of a hedge against uncertainty,' says Eric Hamerman, an assistant professor of marketing at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business who, with Dr. Johar, co-wrote the study, published in October in the Journal of Consumer Research.
乔哈尔说，尽管这类迷信可以破除，但人们通常需要看到大量的负面证据，才愿意和那些被认为给他们带来好运的做法分道扬镳。图兰大学(Tulane University)弗里曼商学院(Freeman School of Business)市场营销副教授哈默曼(Eric Hamerman)说，这是因为这些迷信为人们树立起一堵抵御不确定性侵扰的围 。他与乔哈尔合着的研究论文发表在了10月份的《消费者研究》(Journal of Consumer Research)杂志上。

In their experiment, Drs. Johar and Hamerman had 275 participants play the game 'rock, paper, scissors' against a computer-10 series with their right hand and 10 with their left. Unbeknownst to the participants, the computer program manipulated the results to make some people fare better with their left. When given the chance to choose which hand to use for the final matches, more than three-quarters of those playing the rigged game chose the hand that 'caused' them to win more.
在他们的实验中，乔哈尔和哈默曼邀请了275名参与者与一台电脑玩“石头、剪刀、布”的游戏，每人用左、右手各玩10次。而受试者并不知道，电脑程序对游戏结果进行了操控，让某些人用左手玩的时候能更胜一筹。在最后的比赛中，受试者可以选择使用哪只手来参赛，结果超过四分之三的人选择用那只让他们赢得更多轮比赛的手。

If asked, few participants would say they consciously decided to choose the left hand because they thought it would make them lucky. However, their behavior suggests they conditioned themselves to make the connection, say the researchers.
研究人员说，在被问及原因时，很少有受试者会说他们是有意选择了更走运的左手，但他们的行为说明他们条件性地在二者间建立了因果关系。

The phenomenon of conditioned superstition is common enough that entire advertising campaigns have been built around it, says Dr. Hamerman. A recent Bud Light commercial, for example, has a fan forcing down a terrible-tasting veggie burger because his team won the last time he did so.
哈默曼说，“条件性迷信”现象的存在之广，足以让广告活动都围绕它展开。比如百威淡啤最近的一则广告中，一个球迷吃着难以下咽的素食汉堡，只因为上一次他吃这种汉堡的时候他的球队赢了。

Mary Pfister, a 20-year-old sophomore at Saint Louis University, wears her Chicago Blackhawks shirt for each game. The hockey team won big the first time she wore it this season. She once made a 15-minute trip, out of her way, back home to get it for game time. The Blackhawks have lost once while she was wearing her shirt-the only time she didn't watch the game. The connection may be 'all in her head,' she says, but it gives her peace of mind.
路易斯大学(Saint Louis University)的20岁大二学生菲斯特(Mary Pfister)每次看芝加哥黑鹰队的比赛时都会穿上球队的队服。本赛季她第一次穿上那件衣服时，该曲棍球队大比分获胜。有次她还特意花15分钟绕道回家去拿这件衣服以备在比赛时间穿上。在她穿着那件衣服时，黑鹰队输过一次比赛，那也是她唯一一次没有看比赛。她说，也许我是在异想天开，但这么一来我每次都能安心不少。

In their recently published experiment, Drs. Johar and Hamerman found they could reduce people's superstitious behavior by reminding them of their positive traits, a technique psychologists call 'self-affirmation.' In the study, people who were asked to write about times they had shown compassion later exhibited less superstitious behavior than those who had just been given a survey.
在乔哈尔和哈默曼最近发表的一篇研究中，他们发现可以通过提醒人们想起自己的优秀品质，来削弱他们的迷信倾向，这是一种被心理学家称作“自我肯定”的方法。在研究中，一些人先被要求写下能体现出自己富有同情心的经历，在随后的调查中，这些人比直接受调查者的迷信程度要小了许多。

All participants in the study answered obscure trivia questions on both blue and green computer backgrounds and were told, regardless of their actual score, that they performed better when answering questions presented on the green screen. When asked to choose the screen color for the final task, those who had been primed to remember their virtuous acts were less likely to choose the 'lucky' green background.
全部受试者分别在蓝、绿色背景的电脑上回答了一些不起眼的小问题，并被告知（无论真实成绩如何）他们在绿色屏幕的那台电脑上的答题得分更高。当被问到想用什么颜色的屏幕来完成最终任务时，那些先前被提醒过自己所做善举的人们较不太会选择“幸运的”绿色背景。