Superstitious learning: Can 'lucky' rituals bring success?

Why do successful people follow such eccentrically specific habits? And why are we so keen to read about them and mimic them in our own lives?

The answer lies in a powerful psychological process called ‘superstitious learning’. The brain is constantly looking for associations between two events. While it is mostly correct, it sometimes mistakes coincidence for causality – leading us to attribute success to something as arbitrary as the colour of our notebook or the number of beans in our brew, rather than our own talent or hard work.

By giving us a sense of self-determination, the adoption of rituals – including the completely random behaviours that we have learnt ourselves or borrowed from those we admire – can help us to overcome anxiety, and may even bring about a noticeable boost in performance.

When we hear of others' triumphs, we often end up copying their habits, too, including the arbitrary rituals that they had acquired through superstitious learning - a phenomenon known as 'over-imitation'.