Sergio Parra for:
The pigeon superstition is a now classic Skinner experiment that was carried out in 1948. Eight hungry pigeons participated in this experiment, which were introduced into the so-called Skinner box or operant conditioning chamber, a laboratory instrument used in experimental behavioral analysis to study the behavior of animals.
In this, the pigeons were provided with food at regular intervals regardless of the response they gave. That is, they were able to establish correlations (this happens after I have done that) but not causalities (this happens because I have done that). However, via superstition, correlation was confused with causation.
The article is a great resource to explain what superstitious behavior is and why people confuse correlation with causation. .
I liked the example so much that I looked for Skinner’s original article. The article is called ‘Superstition’ in pigeons, is only 5 pages long and includes a hand-drawn chart by Skinner himself. Good ‘ol times! .
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