Question

"Which of the following is an example of superstitious behavior resulting from temporal contiguity?

a. Natasha's friend tells her that if she steps on a sidewalk crack, she'll break her mother's back; now Natasha carefully walks around the sidewalk cracks
b. Natasha kisses the clock at 11:11 and makes a wish, and a few days later, her wish comes true; now Natasha kisses the clock every time it shows 11:11
c. Natasha tugged on her sports jersey just before her favorite basketball player shot a free throw, and he made the shot; now she tugs on her sports jersey any time the basketball player is about to shoot a free throw
d. Natasha accidentally washes a load of white clothing along with a red sock, and all her clothes
turned red; now Natasha always checks each piece of clothing to make sure no clothing items are red"

Answer 1

The example of superstitious behavior resulting from temporal contiguity is Natasha tugging on her jersey before a basketball player shoots and continuing to do so because she perceives it helps him score.

Step-by-step explanation:

An example of superstitious behavior resulting from temporal contiguity is c. Natasha tugged on her sports jersey just before her favorite basketball player shot a free throw, and he made the shot; now she tugs on her sports jersey any time the basketball player is about to shoot a free throw. This behavior exemplifies the false cause fallacy, where Natasha believes that her action (tugging on the jersey) is causing an event (the player making the shot) simply because the two events occurred close together in time. This, coupled with confirmation bias, where Natasha might recall only the successful shots after her action and not the misses, strengthens her superstitious belief despite there being no causal link between the events.