Introduction: A common complaint of disc golfers is that comments made while a disc is in flight, particularly compliments made regarding the shot, in some way change the flight path, usually in the direction of a tree. This phenomenon is referred to as "new yorking." Some golfers contend that hot air from golfers actually changes the flight path of the disc (the classic "a butterfly flaps its wings in Japan and it rains in Philadelphia" view, very common among chaos theorists.)

But new yorking is, in fact, onsidered to be a superstitious behavior, so it makes sense to examine how superstitious behaviors are formed. Traditional behaviorist theories of superstition formation focus on the importance of noncontingent reinforcement or punishment. A behavior (a golfer's compliment) is paired with a stimulus (a good shot knocked down by a tree), even though the behavior did not cause the stimulus. A baseball pitcher wears a particular pair of socks and he throws a no-hitter. He mistakenly pairs the behavior (wearing socks) with a stimulus (winning) If he keeps wearing the socks and pitching well, the superstitious behavior is reinforced.

Superstitious behaviors are usually extinguished as the person does not receive reinforcement for a certain behavior. As a pitcher begins losing, the strength of the pairing of behavior and stimulus diminishes. Eventually, the superstitious behavior disappears all together. However, disc golf is a unique behavioral situation, in that the behavior is only acknowledged when the response is negative. Nobody ever comments about new yorking when the response is positive. Therefore, the superstition is much less susceptible to extinction, since the behavior is always being reinforced, if only rarely.

I offer as evidence the following data that I collected over a four month period. I was hoping to show that new yorking is, in fact, a myth.

Methodology: Six golfers of various talent levels (Tom "Snuffy" Smith, Danny Saute, Pete Wade, Jeff Henderson, and Prof Greg) were randomly selected and observed for this experiment. Subjects were unaware that they were participating in this experiment. The principle experimenter played two rounds with each of these six golfers. During the round, the number of good shots (shots that landed within twenty feet of the pin) and the number of "good shots gone bad" (shots with good flight paths that hit trees) were recorded. The number of new yorks (compliments uttered while a disc was in flight) and the number of perceived new yorks (golfers' accusation that he had been new yorked after a shot) trees hit were also recorded.

Results: A whopping 95% of all good shots were new yorked while in flight. Only once was a golfers' compliments acknowledged as new yorking, and that was when a shot bounced of two trees and landed five feet from the pin. Conversely, only 75% of the "good shots gone bad" were new yorked. Of those 75%, the thrower accused the other player of new yorking 60% of the time.

Discussion: The results indicate that, despite popular belief, discs thar are new yorked are less likely to hit trees than those that are not new yorked. As hypothesized, golfers were much more likely to acknowledge new yorking when their shot hit a tree.

Implications: Disc golfers should quit whining.