text:  So I was looking into that, and psychologists say that engaging with superstitious behaviors provides people with a sense of control. It reduces anxiety, which is why they've observed levels of superstition increasing in times of stress and angst, such as when there's an economic crisis or, say, a lockdown and a pandemic and social uncertainty. So some scientists think now that it's an adaptive evolutionary behavior, which could be a result of what they're calling evolutionary lag.