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Researchers are finding evidence that superstitions may not be as pointless at all. By adopting a belief that you can - or cannot - do something to affect a desired outcome, you're among the cadre of beings that learn.
Superstition is an evolutionary surprise - it makes no sense for organisms to believe a specific action influences the future when it can't. Yet superstitious behavior can be recognized in many animals, not just humans. Superstitions are not free - there are rituals and avoidances cost. The question becomes how can natural selection create, or simply allow for, such inappropriate behavior?
"From an evolutionary perspective, superstitions seem maladaptive," said Kevin Abbott, biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa and co-author of a recent study published in Animal Behavior.
The study suggests multiple reasons for such anomalies to exist: perhaps superstition is adaptive as a placebo, or for social bonding. Or maybe it really is maladaptive now, but is "the outcome of traits that were adaptive in ancestral environment," said Abbott.
参考译文：
研究人员正日渐发现，迷信并非毫无意义。你可以（或者不可以）做些事情来影响预期结果，这种信仰能让你成为会学习生物中的精英。
迷信可谓进化过程给人们带来的惊喜——相信某个特定行为可影响未来（实际并非如此）对有机系统并没有意义。但是迷信行为不仅在人类社会可见，动物也有。迷信行为也不是免费的——种种仪式和避讳都有成本。问题在于：自然选择怎么会创造（或者允许）这种不当行为的？
“从进化角度看，迷信似乎并不适应（进化理论），”最近发表于《动物行为》的研究论文撰稿人之一、渥太华卡尔顿大学的生物学家凯文阿伯特说道。
该研究显示，这种异常现象存在的原因各种各样：或许是作为安慰剂，或者是为了社会联系。或者现在它确实没什么意义，但却是“古代环境适应特征的结果，”阿伯特称。
