4. Mental Illness

Although this cause is far less common and does not give a cause for superstition in regards to the general public, mental illness can play a huge role in whether or not someone is superstitious. OCD, Anxiety, and Schizophrenia are the mental illnesses that are most likely to occur with superstition as they can easily go hand in hand with the paranoid and ritualistic traits of superstitious behaviour.

For OCD, the connection to superstition lies within the behaviour rather than the beliefs as both OCD and superstition carry ritualistic behaviours and cause and effect processes behind them. For example, a person with OCD may continually wash their hands because they feel as if something terrible will happen if they don’t.

When it comes to anxiety, superstitions build upon the discomfort and fears already felt by the sufferer. This is because the anxious person is open to the idea of bad outcomes for various, often irrational, reasons.

Sources: Superstitiousness in obsessive-compulsive disorder – Peter Brugger, PhD, A Closer Look at the Relationship Between Superstitious Behaviors and Trait Anxiety – Brandy Futrell, The Daily Mail, Superstition: The mentality connecting OCD and Superstitions