This study consists of two cycles of work, each focused on a single informational text that explores the reasons people have superstitions and rituals. The first text, “In a Field of Reason, Lawyers Woo Luck Too,” written by Benjamin Weiser and published in The New York Times, explores the superstitions of trial lawyers. Weiser works from examples to explain lawyers’ inclination to both dismiss and embrace superstitious behavior. This text and the work in this module provide an important introduction to the topic of superstitions, patterns, and control and to the basic and essential cycles of teaching and learning that will mark the work in the second module as well as the work in the second unit in this series.

The second cycle of work features a second informational text, “Embrace the Supernatural: How Superstitions, Placebos and Rituals Help You to Achieve Your Goals” by Thorin Klosowski. The text provides information from scientists, writers, and research about why people believe in superstitions, the difference between superstitions and rituals, and why people should embrace some superstitions cautiously and others not at all. Although this text is longer and more complex, because of the work students experienced in the first module, they are well-equipped to meet the demands of the text and the module’s tasks. In the final session of the unit, students have the opportunity to work across the two texts to explain the behavior of several lawyers featured in Weiser’s article through the lens of the ideas and information in the Klosowski text.