General Information about Item:

• Superstition
• Language: English
• Origin: Dartmouth College
• Informant: Ethan Ruh
• Date Collected: February 21, 2018

Informant Data:

• The informant is from Omaha, Nebraska. He is 20 years old and has one older brother who went to Stanford University and is now a doctor. He has two parents. His father has a law degree and his mother has no college degree. He grew up in a Catholic family. He is a biology major and is currently pre-med. He went to a very strict Jesuit school in Nebraska, where dress code and overall school rules were harshly enforced.

Contextual Data:

• Social Context: Attending a very strict Jesuit school that has a reputation for enforcing rules in a very harsh manner meant that the informant was very careful when it came to any instructions involving tests and other examinations. One of his teachers while at this school had a particular rule about the writing utensils allowed during an examination. Their particular rule was that they had to write their exams in pen. They claimed it was because it made them think more about their answer before writing it down, since this gave them only one chance to write the answer down due to the fact that pen marks cannot be erased.
• Cultural Context: Not adhering to the rules set forth by the professor could result in punishment. For instance, the test, if not written in pen, could be marked as incorrect and the student, in this case the informant, would receive a 0% for their final grade. This is considered failing.

Item:

• The informant’s superstition is now that he has to write in pen during an exam. If he does not write in pen, he does not feel comfortable during an exam and feels more likely to fail. This is an extreme superstition, as he claims that he would not take the exam if he had to write in pencil. He would find a pen no matter what before starting the examination.

Informant’s Comments:

• Pens make me feel like I’m making less mistakes. I feel like a think a lot more about the things I write when I write with a pen.

Collector’s Comments:

• I also use pens when I take exams, as it does make me feel more efficient than taking it with a pencil.

Collector’s Name: Bridget Douglas

Tags/Keywords:

• Superstition
• Pen