Associate Professor Micah Goldwater

How science and the supernatural can fit together

We can be quite creative in how we assemble information, in ways that are totally incompatible with science.

Research from rural South Africa a few years after the peak of the AIDS crisis revealed how human minds do this. Before public health education to fight the spread of the HIV virus, people often believed AIDS was caused by witchcraft.

After these education programs, the idea of a sexually transmitted virus did not supplant the role of bewitchment. Instead the two fit together. Someone might believe witchcraft caused the attraction that lead to sex with someone carrying the virus, for example.

The researchers called this “explanatory coexistence” because scientific explanations (the virus) and supernatural explanations (here, witchcraft) happily coexist in our minds.

It can be risky when it becomes pseudoscience

Sometimes science-ish explanations sound plausible because our knowledge is very shallow and a “pseudoscientific” claim may be based on some scientific components.

When it comes to catching colds, while I know a virus causes the cold, my knowledge doesn’t go much deeper. So it may not be too hard to convince me of some phoney but science-ish explanation or treatment.

Early in the COVID pandemic, for instance, people took the idea that bleach and sunlight can kill bugs and wrongly applied this to COVID. Myths that drinking bleach or sitting in the sun could clear a COVID infection spread among family and friendship groups, as well as social media.

We trust others to form our beliefs because we believe they may know more about that topic than we do, whether they be doctors or our grandparents. Anecdotes have a big influence on our judgements, even when we are presented with evidence to the contrary.

Should I rein it in?

To work out if it’s a problem to mix scientific beliefs with the supernatural and superstitious, we have to consider what behaviours it leads to.

There’s no harm drying your hair before going outside or getting mad at a sports broadcaster after your team blows their lead. There may be safety benefits in avoiding walking under ladders, or opening umbrellas indoors.

If it’s just a bit of fun, like doing tarot readings at a party, it’s not something you need to worry about. But if you won’t go on a date with someone you really like because you’re a Scorpio and they’re a Gemini, it might be worth rethinking your position.

Interrogating your beliefs – and why you believe something – is a good way to start. By understanding what you don’t know and trying to fill your knowledge gaps with credible sources, you will improve your collection of puzzle pieces, and develop better ways of fitting them together.

This article was originally published in The Conversation as 'I’m educated and a fan of science. So why do I follow superstitions?' By Associate Professor Micah Goldwater from the School of Psychology, Faculty of Science.