These superstitions are based on the culture that you grew up in.
For example, in Asian countries they treat the number 4 as the quoted 13. This is called tetraphobia, and I think it originated because of how close the word for 4 is to how you say "death".
It is so big that massive companies like Nokia would skip version 4 in their software for their Asian markets.
Also, some hotels with big numbers of Asian customers will skip the number 4 in the elevator.
Yes, superstitions grows based on the local cultures. In the past, I saw some people still looking for a spiritual place and quieted themselves to search for the sign. But some others use another way to make their choice to bet. It is normally happens in the Asian countries but I am not sure if that will still happen now because the technology has grown fast and many people in the above 25 years not doing that ways anymore. Some people will avoid the numbers 4 and 13 because they believe that will not be good for them so they will not choose both numbers. They prefer pick the other numbers.