How Superstitions Can Reduce Anxiety

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 964 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn how superstitions can actually reduce anxiety, why rebooting can often fix computer problems, and why the first full dinosaur skeleton ever found is finally being studied 160 years later.

How Superstitions Can Actually Reduce Anxiety by Reuben Westmaas

Brooks, A. W., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Gino, F., Galinsky, A. D., Norton, M. I., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2016). Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137, 71–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.07.004
Oksman, O. (2016, July 25). The psychology of luck: how superstition can help you win. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/25/psychology-donald-trump-win-luck-superstition

Why Does Rebooting Fix Computer Problems? By Sonja Hodgen

Miles, R. (2016, September 14). Explained: why a reboot is the go-to computer fix. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explained-why-a-reboot-is-the-go-to-computer-fix-65261
1&1 IONOS Inc. (2020, March 25). What is a bootloader? IONOS Digitalguide; 1&1 IONOS Inc. https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/server/configuration/what-is-a-bootloader/
Operating System Definition | What is an Operating System? (2019). Webopedia.Com. https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/operating_system.html
Rouse, M. (2017). flash memory card. SearchStorage; TechTarget. https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/memory-card?_ga=2.8198770.1576329453.1600860503-1257166889.1600860503

The First Complete Dinosaur Skeleton Ever Found has Finally Been Studied After 160 Years by Grant Currin

Scelidosaurus: ready for its closeup at last. (2020, August 26). University of Cambridge. https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/scelidosaurus
Norman, D. B. (2020). Scelidosaurus harrisonii (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Early Jurassic of Dorset, England: biology and phylogenetic relationships. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa061

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-superstitions-can-reduce-anxiety

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.
0:06.0	I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:07.0	And I'm Natalia Reagan.
0:08.0	Today you learn how superstitions can actually reduce anxiety, why rebooting can often fix computer problems, and why the first
0:15.3	full dinosaur skeleton ever found is finally being studied 160 years later.
0:20.9	Let's study some curiosity.
0:24.0	It's October, which means it's a season of black cats and other spooky superstitions.
0:28.4	While you might think a science podcast would turn its nose up at silly beliefs and good luck
0:32.3	charms and bad luck numbers, you'd be wrong.
0:35.0	Turns out that superstitions can be good for your mental health.
0:39.0	They've even been shown to reduce anxiety.
0:42.0	All sorts of people have been known to engage in
0:43.9	superstitious behavior. According to probably an apocryphal story about
0:47.9	legendary physicist Niels Moore, a visitor was once astonished to see a
0:52.3	horseshoe hanging on his wall.
0:54.4	When questioned, Neil said, of course I don't believe in it.
0:57.2	But I understand that it works whether you believe in it or not.
1:00.8	Kind of like science. That story might be surprising. What's even more surprising is that superstitions might actually work.
1:08.0	In 2016, researchers from Harvard and Berkeley looked into the role rituals can play in how we deal with stress.
1:15.5	They put participants through a series of anxiety-inducing tasks that included singing,
1:20.3	Don't Stop Believing and doing difficult math problems.
1:24.0	I'm getting stressed just thinking about that.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.