Across all cultures, people frequently engage in ritualized (non-instrumental) behaviors. How do those causally opaque actions affect perceptions of causal efficacy? Using real-life stimuli extracted from NCAA basketball games, we asked fans, players of the game, and subjects naive to the game to predict the outcome of free throw attempts. We found that the performance of personal pre-shot rituals increased the perception of shot efficacy irrespective of subjects' level of knowledge of and involvement in the game. Those effects became stronger when the score was less favorable for the shooter's team. Our findings suggest that even in non-religious contexts, people make intuitive judgements about ritual efficacy, and that those judgements are sensitive to ecological factors. The implications of those biases extend beyond sports, to various domains of public action, such as religion, courtrooms, college life, and political events.

Departamento de Corpo e Movimento Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais Brazil

Department of Anthropology University of Connecticut USA; Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action Department of Psychological Sciences University of Connecticut USA

Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology Slovak Academy of Sciences Slovakia; LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion Masaryk University Czech Republic

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