Hypothesis about the superstition in a testable form

Sample Solution

Superstition: Seeing a black cat cross your path is bad luck. Hypothesis: Seeing a black cat cross your path does not increase the likelihood of experiencing bad luck. Dependent variable: Bad luck. This can be measured by counting the number of negative events that happen to a person within a certain period of time after seeing a black cat. For example, you could count the number of times a person trips and falls, spills their coffee, or gets a flat tire. Independent variable: Seeing a black cat cross your path. This can be manipulated by randomly assigning participants to either see a black cat cross their path or not see a black cat cross their path. Sample participants: 100 people of all ages and genders. Experimental group: 50 people who are randomly assigned to see a black cat cross their path. Control group: 50 people who are randomly assigned to not see a black cat cross their path. Procedure:

1. Recruit 100 participants of all ages and genders.
2. Randomly assign 50 participants to the experimental group and 50 participants to the control group.
3. Bring the experimental group to a location where they will see a black cat cross their path.
4. Bring the control group to a location where they will not see a black cat cross their path.
5. Record the number of negative events that happen to each participant within a certain period of time after seeing or not seeing a black cat cross their path.

Results: After a certain period of time, compare the number of negative events that happened to the participants in the experimental group to the number of negative events that happened to the participants in the control group. If the experimental group experienced significantly more negative events than the control group, then the hypothesis that seeing a black cat cross your path increases the likelihood of experiencing bad luck would be supported. However, if the experimental and control groups experienced a similar number of negative events, then the hypothesis would not be supported. Conclusion: This experiment is designed to test the superstition that seeing a black cat cross your path is bad luck. The dependent variable is bad luck, which will be measured by counting the number of negative events that happen to participants within a certain period of time after seeing or not seeing a black cat cross their path. The independent variable is seeing a black cat cross your path, which will be manipulated by randomly assigning participants to either see a black cat cross their path or not see a black cat cross their path. The sample participants are 100 people of all ages and genders, who will be randomly assigned to the experimental group or the control group. The procedure is to bring the experimental group to a location where they will see a black cat cross their path and bring the control group to a location where they will not see a black cat cross their path. The results will be compared to determine whether the experimental group experienced significantly more negative events than the control group. If the experimental group did experience significantly more negative events, then the hypothesis that seeing a black cat cross your path increases the likelihood of experiencing bad luck would be supported. However, if the experimental and control groups experienced a similar number of negative events, then the hypothesis would not be supported. This is just a basic design for an experiment to test the superstition that seeing a black cat cross your path is bad luck. There are many other ways to design this experiment, and the specific design would depend on the resources available and the specific research questions being asked.