http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDi2NlsA4nI
I couldn't embed this so you will have to go look for yourself......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDi2NlsA4nI
I couldn't embed this so you will have to go look for yourself......
TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/723
This was pretty cool, and seemingly modern which is nice too. This behavior of superstitions is a learned behavior. As long as the cost of a superstition is less than the cost of missing a real associate, the superstition will be favored.
This is the case of the experiment. The textbook says that a superstition is a credulous belief, not bound by any experience, reason, or knowledge. This is true with the pigeons from Skinner and the participants in Derren Brown's experiment. They all contribute to the notion of superstitious behavior. All of the participants go around doing random things, believing that they are affecting their environment. When in reality the points are given on a fixed interval scale at random.
On a side note, the clip of the girl and the dart looks really edited. Also, another side note, Derren's goatee is really crooked
let me rephrase...a fixed interval scale wouldn't be at random. but how the points were assigned (the fish in a tank crossing a certain mark) were random, the notion of it being "fixed" came from them getting one point at each mark crossing.