Superstitions are hard to shake . After all , who does n’t feel a little lucky when they recover a penny on the sidewalk ( head teacher up , of course ) ? Superstitious rituals tend to be most powerful when there ’s underlying fear and anxiousness involved . Would you brazenly walk under a ladder on Friday the 13th ? A lot of mass would n’t .
Unsurprisingly , Americans have many superstitions when they ram . According to a recentnational surveyby the railroad car indemnity marketplace Netquote , hold back your breath through tunnel is the most common driving superstitious notion . That may make you wonder — why do people hold their intimation in a tunnel ?
Is the Superstition About Avoiding Bad Luck?
About 30 percent of American women and 35 percent of American men hold their breathing time while repel in tunnels , but what ’s the origin of this democratic superstitious notion ? That’sup for debate . Some driver believe the act is about foreclose bad fortune . Others believe a compliments is granted when someone keep their breath all the way of life through a burrow .
potential origination include citizenry believe thattunnelair could bring around children with whooping cough — need others in the car to hold up their breathing spell — and that the drill helps counteract any changes in aviation force per unit area . Some people , on the other handwriting , think of it as agamefor children on family route trips , not a superstition about the healing office of burrow air or anything of the sort .
More Superstitions on the Road
Not breathing through tunnels is n’t the only commonsuperstitiondrivers and passengers have . For instance , the second - most popular is raise metrical foot when excrete over a span or railway line tracks . closely a quarter of respondents hold their breath while aim past a burying ground . About the same amount have a good - fortune item in their cars , like a rosary or rabbit ’s metrical foot . And a significant portion of mass beg while drive through a sensationalistic light source — while not in the survey , others beg the ceiling of their car after successfully passing through .
" We were have a bun in the oven superstitious practice on the road to be fairly uncommon , so it was surprising to give away that over one in five men and women push back with some variety of golden charm in their vehicle , " sound out Jason Hargraves , care editor in chief of NetQuote via e-mail . Even if you do n’t pledge to any superstition on the route , you may have friends or family phallus who do . superstition are a common - pattern part of the driving cognitive operation for many people , after all .
Urban Legends
In another survey , Netquote ask drivers about their most unwashed drive - related concern , include some classic urban legend . The biggest fear by far for both sexes is fake fuzz pulling citizenry over . Nearly one-half of women and more than a third of men partake in this apprehension . While such crimes are super uncommon , they do happen , so number one wood should n’t hesitate to ask to see a police officer ’s designation if something does n’t sense proper .
In cosmopolitan , women be given to have more fears while in the number one wood ’s fundament than man . For representative , more than double as many female drivers ( 22.5 percent ) are afraid of someone hiding in the back bum of the machine as compare to men ( 11 percent ) . But more or less more military man than women believe thatcar thievesjam coins into a door handle so that it stays open after the driver thinks he ’s locked it . Those scary stories we heard as children can certainly make an opinion .
