Social capital refers to the quantity and quality of social relationships, such as formal and informal social connections as well as norms of reciprocity and trust that exist in a place or a community. This article analyzed the data from Japan 2004 B Survey in order to elucidate the effects of social capital and socio-psychological factors on the health of Japanese males and females. The Survey...

We argue that some but not all superstitions can persist when learning is rational and players are patient, and illustrate our argument with an example inspired by the code of Hammurabi. The code specified an “appeal by surviving in the river” as a way of deciding whether an accusation was true, so it seems to have relied on the superstition that the guilty are more likely to drown than the inn...

We argue that some but not all superstitions can persist when learning is rational and players are patient, and illustrate our argument with an example inspired by the code of Hammurabi. The code specified an “appeal by surviving in the river” as a way of deciding whether an accusation was true, so it seems to have relied on the superstition that the guilty are more likely to drown than the inn...

Gilbert White, once curate of Selborne in Hampshire, is rightly famed for his classic descriptions of bird, mammal and insect behaviour and status in the eighteenth century, and immortalised in The Natural History of Selborne. Perhaps not so well known, however, is his interest in the public health of his parish, his respect for the individual, even if eccentric, and his sense of compassion. Fu...

Superstitions and rituals are commonplace in sports and range from simple activities such as each player touching a special inanimate object before entering the field of play to more extreme behaviours such as not washing a uniform or wearing the same underwear during a winning streak. These practices are relatively harmless and may reduce precompetition anxiety, but a concerning ritual that ha...

Dr. Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and a monthly columnist for Scientific American, presents his most popular lecture on science, pseudoscience, and superstitions, explaining mysteries and exploring the psychology of why people believe them. In the process, Dr. Shermer will consider how science works by looking at how it does not work. Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publish...

Traditionally, research on superstition and magical thinking has focused on people's cognitive shortcomings, but superstitions are not limited to individuals with mental deficits. Even smart, educated, emotionally stable adults have superstitions that are not rational. Dual process models--such as the corrective model advocated by Kahneman and Frederick (2002, 2005), which suggests that System ...