Cate Blanchett leads Australia arts brainstorming meet
CANBERRA - Australian actress Cate Blanchett may have missed out on a second Oscar, but she has been picked to head a think-tank on the ......
Australia cemetery trains lifeguard gravediggers
CANBERRA - An Australian cemetery is training gravediggers as lifesavers and has installed a defibrillator to jumpstart the hearts of gr......
Jaguars quarterback Garrard agrees to contract extension
MIAMI - Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard has agreed to a contract extension, the team said on its Web site (http://www.jag......
Scientists find hot spot on Saturn's chilly pole
By Michael Kahn LONDON - Saturn 's chilly north pole boasts a hot spot of compressed air, a surprising discovery that could shed ......
Ex-PM to head Russian foreign intelligence
DUSHANBE - Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will be appointed head of the country 's foreign intelligence service, Presiden......
CANBERRA - Australian actress Cate Blanchett may have missed out on a second Oscar, but she has been picked to head a think-tank on the ......
Australia cemetery trains lifeguard gravediggers
CANBERRA - An Australian cemetery is training gravediggers as lifesavers and has installed a defibrillator to jumpstart the hearts of gr......
Jaguars quarterback Garrard agrees to contract extension
MIAMI - Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard has agreed to a contract extension, the team said on its Web site (http://www.jag......
Scientists find hot spot on Saturn's chilly pole
By Michael Kahn LONDON - Saturn 's chilly north pole boasts a hot spot of compressed air, a surprising discovery that could shed ......
Ex-PM to head Russian foreign intelligence
DUSHANBE - Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will be appointed head of the country 's foreign intelligence service, Presiden......
Lack Of Control Seen Fueling Superstitions
CHICAGO - Lack of control can lead rational people to see patterns even where no true pattern exists, a finding that explains seemingly irrational behavior, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
They said their findings help explain why baseball players perform elaborate rituals or stock analysts sometimes see ominous trends in perfectly innocuous data.
The need for structure or understanding leads people to trick themselves into seeing and making connections that do not exist, said Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin.
"When we lack control we are going to see and seek out patterns, sometimes even false patterns, to regain our sense of control," said Whitson, whose research appears in the journal Science.
Baseball players are a prime example.
"Everybody knows the classic superstitious baseball player with their lucky T-shirt and the particular thing they have to do before they step up to the plate," Whitson said in an audio interview on the Science website.
She and colleague Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, suspected lack of control was at the heart of many rituals, superstitions and conspiracy theories.
To prove it, they conducted a series of experiments in which they manipulated control in different ways -- for instance by asking people to answer a series of questions, then randomly telling half of them they were making mistakes.
More Information
Keywords:
More Articles
Potter author worried about translation networks
PARIS - J.K. Rowling and her French publisher said on Thursday they were worried about organized groups of translators, not individuals,......
Congo rebels sign deal to end eastern conflict
By Lubunga Bya 'Ombe GOMA, Congo - Warring rebels and militias in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo signed a ceasefire deal on......
Former PGA Tour player Souchak dies at 81
MIAMI - American Mike Souchak, a 15-times winner on the PGA Tour who appeared on two U.S. Ryder Cup teams, died on Thursday after a hear......
Images show pleading Iraq prisoners
By Waleed Ibrahim and Peter Graff BAGHDAD - Rare footage from inside a Baghdad prison camp shows hundreds of inmates packed into ......
Funeral for film legend Bergman on Saturday: report
STOCKHOLM - A close circle of family and friends will on Saturday bid farewell to Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman at a funeral on F......
