The Science Of Superstitions, Why We Cross Boundaries We Never Thought We Would, And How To Assign Work No One Wants To Do
Cognicent | April, 2026 | Newsletter
Welcome to the April edition of our Insight Articles!
In this edition we explore the science behind whether superstitions are actually good for you, why people cross boundaries they never thought they would, and how to approach the dreaded task of assigning the work no none wants to do.
Article One:
The Science Of Superstitions, Are They Good For You?
You’ve likely heard of superstitions, a cognitive process where people link one seemingly unrelated thing to our performance or outcome on another. Whether it’s a lucky pair of socks to make us play sport better or avoiding stepping on the cracks in the footpath to prevent “bad luck”, these superstitions are widespread. While most of us understand that logically the connection between our superstitious behaviours and our outcomes aren’t really linked, are superstitions actually good for us?
Superstitions are effectively false cause-and-effect patterns that our brain recognises, and they helped us survive. Humans who could link rustling bushes to a predator’s movement were more likely to survive, even if the rustling was only the wind. While pattern spotting is often very helpful, it isn’t perfect, because as we know just because two things happen close together doesn’t mean one caused the other. However, despite knowing all these things, superstitions still get used and continue to have performance impacts. In fact, using superstitions have been found to help us deal with our anxiety in structured ways, enabling us to perform. In essence they provide predictability and certainty in times where we feel out of control.
Almost 70% of Olympic athletes say they have some kind of ritual before competition, and the research supports this as well, with a study conducted by Damisch et al (2010) comparing people on a golf putting task. Those who believed they had a “lucky ball” outperformed those with a “normal” ball despite both being identical. In essence, what you believe really matters! However, there is also an unhelpful side of superstitions, especially when they become things that you feel you “have” to do rather than “choose” to do which can generate fear when not doing it.
Consider for your own rituals/superstitions:
Does it spike your anxiety or help you to focus?
Can you do things without needing the ritual/superstition?
Does it improve or limit how you do things?
Article Reference:
https://www.theneurotimes.com/are-superstitions-good-for-you/
Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2010). Keep your fingers crossed! How superstition improves performance. Psychological Science, 21(7), 1014–1020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610372631
Article Two:
Why We Cross Boundaries We Never Thought We Would
Have you ever seen someone do something and thought to yourself “I didn’t expect that from them” or “that was out of character”? Where behaviour and values don’t necessarily line up. While we sometimes act out as part of being human, the why behind it becomes quite fascinating, and poses considerations for us in the workplace about how our standards and expectations drift as our behaviour changes.
As humans, one of the amazing things we do is adapt. A survival mechanism which saw us alter our behaviour to remain alive. While helpful in many scenarios, it has a less useful side that sometimes only gets noticed once its too late. Something known as “Drift” is used to explain this bending of principles. Our brains favour continuity, meaning that once we take a small step outside of the norm, our brain readjusts its interpretations of events to help our behaviour make sense. While not damaging as a one-off, as the drift happens over time, we begin to deviate further away from our “baseline” and our minds follow us there too.
Drift can come about in a variety of different ways, for example:
Letting your own standards slip by behaving differently
Accepting others slipping behaviour
Letting too many things slide
Consider
Have you noticed a drift in any of your behaviour or standards at work which may impact the team?
What about your team, has there been any drift in behaviour which has been accepted but may be unhelpful to the goals or culture we want?
What can we do to realign ourselves and our team?
Article Three:
When You Have To Assign The Work No One Wants To Do
You know those times where there are tasks outstanding that no one likes and no one wants to do, but they need to be done anyway. They might be boring or monotonous tasks, uncomfortable or annoying tasks or tasks that just get added to your workload that you didn’t really want. While sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, it doesn’t make them any more enjoyable. As a leader, however, we still expect these tasks to be completed to a high level and with a high amount of energy, even though we know the recipient didn’t ask for the work and finds it undesirable. So how can we as leaders approach this dilemma while still getting the outcomes we want? We might incentivise and even bribe, we might try and use dominance or pressure, however research suggests that the key isn’t in any of those things, instead it’s in Acceptance.
People tend to rationalise their choices after they make them, justifying our decisions is something we’re exceptional at! But what about when we didn’t make the choice ourselves? Well research finds that a similar thing applies and that its not about having a say in what we’re assigned, but more about whether we mentally accept it or not and so the key lies in supporting people to do exactly that, accept it.
Research on 2, 500 participants found that people will gravitate towards things they are assigned to by others, but most strongly when they accept that the assignment is just their reality. So how do we create acceptance? Well there’s three critical elements:
Perceived autonomy– when people feel like they have some control over the thing they’ve been assigned, or at least some freedom to choose how they go about the task, they’re more likely to accept it
Finality– when a person gets told that the assigned task is set in stone and there isn’t a way out, they come to terms with that far better than if they are given false hope that they could get out of it
Process legitimacy– when people feel as though there was a fair process undertaken which led to their task assignment, they are more accepting than if they felt something untoward went on which led them to be given the task
Consider
As a leader, when you have to assign the tasks no one wants, what is your approach to doing it?
Do you follow a fair process when assigning these tasks?
Do you ever suggest that the task assignment is still “up in the air” to your people, giving them false hope?
Article Reference:
https://hbr.org/2026/01/when-you-have-to-assign-work-no-one-wants-to-do?ab=HP-topics-text-19
We hope that you have a safe, well and productive rest of your week.
– The Cognicent Team