Expert answers: “Are women more superstitious than men?”

WHY ARE WOMEN MORE SUPERSTITIOUS THAN MEN?

Emmanuèle Gardair: This gap could be due to differences in the way parents educate boys. We live in a world that maintains different representations of the role of women and men, and women are more often encouraged to believe in the supernatural. Besides, feminine superstition could also be a reaction to the social frustration they feel against gender and social disparities that specifically affect them. Faith would then be collected as a way to have a bigger influence on everyday life.

WOULD THEY BE MORE GULLIBLE?

Not necessarily so. The sociologist Jean-Bruno Renard notices that what we observe, is clearly a differentiation between feminine beliefs that essentially concern the divination (fortune-telling, astrology, clairvoyance), and rather masculine beliefs that are linked to extraordinary forms of life and filled with technical-scientific mythology (UFO).

ARE THERE SUPERSTITIONS MORE CURRENT THAN OTHERS?

Some traditional superstitions are declining in relation to others – witchcraft, for example. On the other hand, other forms of superstition have strengthened. That is the case of beliefs in New Age, paranormal or in the pseudosciences (graphology, astrology). It is a fact that some American companies hire astrologers in their teams and that it is possible, in the United States, to obtain a PhD in Astrology.

Read more on our “Superstition” report:

Testimony: ‘I stayed faithful to my teenage beliefs and actions’.

Stéphanie Torre