10 Weirdly Human Animal Behaviours
9. Pigeons Are Superstitious
Maybe you're superstitious, maybe you're not, maybe you sometimes throw spilt salt over your shoulder, just in case.
Whatever your views on black cats, you'll be pleased to know that you aren't alone. You might be less pleased to know that it's just you and the pigeons.
The psychologist B. F. Skinner, famously conducted many behavioural studies with pigeons back in the 1950s and found that they could be made to exhibit superstitious behaviour. They didn't start avoiding walking under ladders or anything, and pigeons tend to steer clear of cat, black or otherwise, anyway, but it was superstitious all the same.
Skinner set up a system that would deliver food to the pigeons on a completely random basis. The pigeons then wrongly began to associate certain behaviours with receiving the food, thinking that they were causing it. One pigeon began making two or three counter-clockwise turns, another thrust its head into the corners of the cage and others came up with all kinds of complex head-bobbing patterns.
The belief that your actions have a causal relationship with completely unrelated events is pretty much the definition of superstition, whether or not you're a spinning pigeon or a human wearing their lucky pants.