1 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:04,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: episode from our archives. Superstition is a fascinating phenomenon, and 4 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: it turns out that humans aren't the only animals that 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:22,800 Speaker 1: have them. I'll let former Lauren explain, Hey brain Stuff, 6 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:26,200 Speaker 1: Lauren vogel bomb here. Imagine your hours into a late 7 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:28,600 Speaker 1: night poker match. Hold up in the basement of a 8 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: sketchy watering hole where tensions are rising. You know you 9 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: should quit while you're ahead, but you just can't bring 10 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:36,880 Speaker 1: yourself to leave any possible winnings on the table. The 11 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: streak has gone on so long it's like you can't lose, 12 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: except you do. One bad card deals you a killer blow. 13 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:48,280 Speaker 1: The spell is broken and your hot hand is gone. Unfortunately, 14 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,560 Speaker 1: it never existed in the first place. Researchers have taken 15 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: great pains to prove that the hot hand bias is 16 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 1: exactly that a bias. It's humans innate predisposition that makes 17 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: us believe we see patterns including winning or losing streaks 18 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: where none exist, especially when preservation or gain are involved. 19 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: Now we know that monkeys have the same superstitious bias too, oh, 20 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: and they really love to gamble. It seems we species 21 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: have more in common than just the of our DNA. 22 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: During a study by researchers at Clarkston University and the 23 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: University of Rochester, REESUS monkeys played a fast paced computer 24 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: game with built in rewards. Correctly guess the next step 25 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: in the pattern, get a treat. However, even when the 26 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,640 Speaker 1: sequence was random, the monkeys gambled like they were on 27 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,240 Speaker 1: a winning streak, showing a false belief in their run 28 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: of good luck. Despite being given multiple opportunities to rehearse 29 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: a different scenario, the monkeys stuck to the patterns they 30 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: perceived to be winning ones. Gambling monkeys hell bent on 31 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: a hot hand is one thing. Figuring out why they 32 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 1: share our pension for these patterns is another. A researchers 33 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:53,760 Speaker 1: point to the odds of finding food in a monkey's 34 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: natural habitat. If a monkey finds a plump beetle under 35 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: tree bark once, it's a clue that he should check 36 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: nearby trees too. If he finds another beetle nearby, it 37 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: reinforces a pattern that the monkey will probably repeat the 38 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: next time he's hungry, even though he may never find 39 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,520 Speaker 1: another beetle the next twenty times he looks. It seems 40 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 1: neither monkeys nor humans ever really make decisions that are 41 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:16,280 Speaker 1: free from bias, and we don't even recognize that we're 42 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: doing it. Take the process by which some humans decide 43 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: to invest in a particular stock. A stock that rises 44 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 1: one day is never guaranteed to rise the next, or 45 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: ever again. Yet we believe that if a stock went 46 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: up once, it will do it again, and so surely 47 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,440 Speaker 1: that will be the most logical investment. This belief in 48 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: winning and losing streaks may not be solely a product 49 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: of life experiences, as was previously thought, Because we share 50 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: the superstition with monkeys. Scientists think there may be a 51 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: genetic component to it and hope that further research could 52 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:49,119 Speaker 1: lead to new approaches to treating gambling addiction, insight into 53 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: decision making theory, and more. Today's episode was written by 54 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tristan McNeil and Tyler Bang. 55 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: For more on this lons of other curious topics, visit 56 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of 57 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts of my heart Radio, 58 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you 59 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:12,320 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.