TABLE 3.
Percentage of participants endorsing agreement about superstitious beliefs and the belief in freewill (N = 1,606).
| Percentage Agreeing1 | |||
| Belief Statement2 | Before | After | Now |
| Superstitious Beliefs | |||
| Black cats can bring bad luck. | 8% | 4% | 3% |
| If you break a mirror, you will have bad luck. | 10% | 5% | 4% |
| The number 13 is unlucky. | 7% | 3% | 2% |
| The abominable snowman of Tibet exists. | 6% | 8% | 8% |
| The Loch Ness monster of Scotland exists. | 10% | 10% | 10% |
| Belief in Freewill | |||
| People have free will; that is, they have the ability to choose between alternative actions. | 74% | 74% | 73% |
1Data in these columns show the percentage of participants rating any agreement [Slightly agree (+ 1) to Strongly agree (+ 3)] with the belief statement at each time point. None of the differences from “Before” to “After” or from “After” to “Now” met the criteria for designating a meaningful difference (a difference of at least 10% and a statistically significant difference; see section “Statistical Analysis” for rationale).
2Verbatim wording of belief statements.