A Superstition or Irrational Fear, Research Paper Example

Superstition is the belief in some supernatural process that cannot be explained by a rational reason or knowledge. This is when someone believes in a thing or action and cannot give a reason to explain the purpose of the belief.  The foundation of superstition is ignorance. Many people believe other people say that the things are true. Most of the superstitious things have existed for generations and most people with the same cultural background believe them.

People believe in superstition when they are afraid of things going out of what they expect. The fear they have makes them believe that something supernatural will help prevent the unexpected from happening. They trust that something supernatural that they believe in will help prevent the unexpected.

There are many pointers that support the existence of superstition. First, superstitions are so vague that it is impossible to point a specific case that will not be true. They involve good or bad luck and as such in most activities or events a good or bad thing will occur. These are then matched with an earlier condition. This makes people believe that it’s what they did that caused things to turn out the way they did. Over a repeated time people start believing that doing a certain thing will help in preventing or enhancing the occurrence of something else.

Examples of superstitions include a football player carrying an item that he believes will influence the outcome of a game. For instance there are football players who believe that wearing a certain jersey number will be a good luck for the game. In wearing such a jersey number the player gains confidence that his team will win. This enables him to play well and in the end his team wins. For athletes, some believe that warming up before a competition event will enable them to win a race. This again imparts confidence that s/he will win. They believe that having certain items in the house will keep away evil spirits is also a superstition. For instance some people believe that wearing a copper bracelet will prevent them from being sick. At times these turn out to be correct. However the correctness of these things is purely by chance. There are instances when what is expected is not what happens. This is normally attributed to something else that could have happened.

Fear is the emotional response to a threat of danger. Irrational fear is the emotion attached to a presumed threat in which a person acts irrationally. Fear makes people very weak and vulnerable. It makes people to start looking for things that they believe could reduce their fear. In the process they end up being superstitious. Hence fear and superstition go hand in hand. Fear of accepting the occurrence of certain events makes people superstitious. An athlete or a sportsman warms up because he wants to win. He is afraid of being beaten in the competition. Some people carry some things for instance bracelets believing they can prevent them from falling sick because they are afraid of falling sick. They fear for their risk. In an attempt to gain security from these things, they end up believing that carrying certain things will help them avoid the dreaded condition.