[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-486639-105":59,"doc-detail-486639-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","where-superstitions-come-from-read-online-free","Where Superstitions Come From - read online free","","Superstitions are presented as beliefs that link causes without any real connection, often emerging from efforts to explain what people cannot explain. Examples include walking under ladders, broken mirrors, horseshoes, and knocking on wood, each carrying both mystical stories and practical origins. The passage explains how psychology—need for control and confirmation bias—makes harmless rituals feel like proof, even for modern fears like Friday the 13th.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/where-superstitions-come-from-read-online-free/486639/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/where-superstitions-come-from-read-online-free/486639.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"CatatanPagi","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-09","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Where do superstitions usually begin according to the passage?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They begin as an attempt to explain something that cannot be explained.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What psychological processes help people keep superstitions they know have no real power?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"People feel a hunger for control through small rituals, and confirmation bias makes them remember hits while forgetting misses.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the passage treat Friday the 13th as evidence that superstitions are still being invented?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The specific fear is described as surprisingly modern, appearing mainly within the last 150 years rather than in ancient times.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},486639,1791455120,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},962090894170,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Picture a baseball player who refuses to wash his socks during a winning streak, or a gambler who blows on the dice before every roll. These people are usually smart, logical, and fully aware that dirty socks cannot win games. So why do they do it? The answer sits at the crossroads of history and psychology, where ancient stories collide with the way your brain is wired. A superstition is a belief that one thing causes another when there is no real link between them, and almost everyone holds at least one.  \nThat gambler blowing on his dice has plenty of company across the centuries, because superstitions usually begin as somebody's attempt to explain the unexplainable.  \nTake the fear of walking under a ladder. One common explanation points to the shape a leaning ladder makes against a wall: a triangle, which some cultures long treated as a symbol of life or the sacred, so passing through it felt like breaking something holy. A more practical explanation is simpler and probably older in spirit: walking under a ladder is genuinely dangerous, because tools or paint could fall on your head. When a belief has both a mystical story and a common-sense root, historians often argue about which came first.  \nBroken mirrors carry a similar double story, one rooted in belief and one rooted in cost. The Romans thought a mirror captured a piece of your spirit, and the idea of seven years of bad luck grew from a belief that the body renewed itself every seven years. But there is a down-to-earth angle too, because early mirrors were expensive luxury items, and telling servants that breaking one brought years of misfortune was a clever way to make them handle the glass carefully. Notice the pattern here: a spooky legend on the surface, a practical purpose hiding underneath. This is exactly why folklorists treat old sayings as evidence about how people once lived, not just as quaint nonsense.  \nIf broken mirrors warned people away from carelessness, other superstitions promised protection, like the horseshoe nailed above a door. One legend credits a blacksmith named Dunstan, later a saint, who was said to have tricked a demon and won a promise that it would never enter a home marked with a horseshoe. Iron itself was long believed to repel evil spirits, and a horseshoe combined iron with a lucky crescent shape. People still argue about how to hang one: points up so the luck fills the shoe like a cup, or points down so it pours over everyone who enters. Knocking on wood works the same protective way, possibly tracing back to old beliefs that spirits lived inside trees and could be called on for help.  \nThe most famous unlucky idea of all, Friday the 13th, shows how two separate fears can merge into one. Thirteen had a bad reputation in several traditions, and Friday was separately considered an unlucky day in parts of Europe, so combining them created a kind of double dose of dread. The specific fear of Friday the 13th, however, seems surprisingly modern, appearing mainly in the past hundred and fifty years or so rather than in ancient times. There is even a tongue-twisting name for the fear: paraskevidekatriaphobia. The fact that this particular fear is so young is strong evidence that superstitions are still being invented right now.  \nSo if these beliefs have no real power, why do sensible people cling to them? Psychologists point to two habits of the human mind working together. The first is a hunger for control, because doing a small ritual before a stressful moment makes people feel less helpless, even when it changes nothing. The second is atrick of memory called confirmation bias: you vividly remember the one time your lucky shirt matched a win, and quietly forget the dozens of times it did not. Add those together and a harmless habit starts to feel like proof. Perhaps that is the real spell behind every superstition, not magic in the object, but the patternhunting brain that badly wants the world to make sense.  \nWhere Superstitions Co","cbCaiidfCy8iwS5l","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiidfCy8iwS5l","pdf",106318,"English","# Where Superstitions Come From\n## Origins in history and practicality\n## Protective symbols and merged fears\n## Psychological reasons people keep beliefs","[{\"question\":\"Where do superstitions usually begin according to the passage?\",\"answer\":\"They begin as an attempt to explain something that cannot be explained.\"},{\"question\":\"What psychological processes help people keep superstitions they know have no real power?\",\"answer\":\"People feel a hunger for control through small rituals, and confirmation bias makes them remember hits while forgetting misses.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the passage treat Friday the 13th as evidence that superstitions are still being invented?\",\"answer\":\"The specific fear is described as surprisingly modern, appearing mainly within the last 150 years rather than in ancient times.\"}]","Where Superstitions Come From - read online free | PDF",1790806830,25]