Folk Belief – Polish

Nationality: Polish
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA (Current)
Performance Date: April 25, 2011
Primary Language: Polish
Language: English

“If you sneeze while talking that means you are saying the truth. [when asked if she thinks its true] Mmm I don’t know. It happens sometimes and that’s just what we say—‘truth’.”

As to where she learned, the informant could not cite a specific source, but said, “My parents or friends probably sometime during primary school. A lot of people say it.”

The informant is from Poland and has been studying at a university in Los Angeles, CA for the past four years.

When asked if she knew any reasoning behind it, the informant said “No, it’s just something they say.” The idea that someone is speaking the truth when they sneeze is potentially related to the fact that the person is not focusing on lying, or potentially that if they were lying when they sneezed they would be distracted from their lie. There is a similar belief in Serbia–it states that when you drop something while speaking, you must be telling the truth.