Step on a Crack, Get Eaten
Everybody knows the old children’s rhyme “step on a crack, break your mother’s back.”
I haven’t met anyone who didn’t play that game as a child. Some people with OCD are unfortunately even driven to play that game continuously. So where does this desire come from?
It occurred to me today that it’s probably a survival instinct. The peers of our ancestors who had no compunction to avoid stepping on sticks and twigs in the forest were slightly more likely to get eaten by large predators and not produce offspring.
Do I have any way to test this hypothesis? Not really. But it sounds good, and as we all know, that’s good enough for the Internet!
So next time you find yourself unconsciously avoiding stepping on cracks, just remember–it helps hide you from the tigers!