From special jerseys to underwear, why are baseball fans so superstitious?

University of Toronto psychology professor Steve Joordens says there's something called 'confirmation bias' that creates superstitions for people and keeps them buying into them. 

Standing among a crowd of blue and white in downtown Toronto Wednesday evening, Maureen Whitehead is kept warm by her George Springer jersey. But as first pitch approached on the night’s match between the Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, superstition said it would have to come off.

“This jersey I can wear before the game and after the game, but I cannot wear during the game,” she said. “Every time I wore it (during a game), they lost, so I said, ‘OK, done with that.’ But I love the jersey, so I want to wear it before and after.”

Another superstition for Whitehead includes a fifth-inning change of scenery, where she’ll go upstairs to a spare bedroom. Her husband, Terry, is not allowed in that room for the rest of the game. He says his wife will also banish him to another room in the house if he walks in while the Jays are winning.

That custom would be a little bit harder to observe on Wednesday for the couple, who took the GO Train in from Oakville, Ont., to be among thousands of fans in the stands at Rogers Centre for a screening of Game 5 of the World Series.

It’s been a roller-coaster week for the Blue Jays fandom, with the team starting off with a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in an 18-inning game on Monday night, only to come back the next day with a 6-2 win against the defending World Series champion Dodgers.

The Jays were victorious for the second night in a row at Dodger Stadium with a 6-1 win on Wednesday night in a game that saw Trey Yesavage set a record for the most strikeouts as a rookie pitcher. They’ll return home for Friday’s Game 6, which could be the culmination of the Fall Classic.

For many, it feels like there’s a lot on the line, as the Jays hadn’t been to the World Series since 1993, when they won the second of back-to-back championships. With such high stakes, it’s only normal that fans would cling to their superstitions, says University of Toronto psychology professor Steve Joordens.

Superstitions are common for people in situations where they have little control over an outcome they care deeply about. The superstition offers “the illusion of control” that certain rituals can affect how that situation plays out, Joordens said.