Superstitious Beliefs

Since yesterday was St. Patrick's day and all about the luck of the Irish, I decided to do a post a superstitions. Superstitions come about due to anxiety. This would explain why athletes are superstitious. They have pre-game anxiety. Studies show that "good luck charms" actually increase confidence, but it's a placebo effect and self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, there was a study with 2 groups of people playing golf. One group of people was told they were playing with a lucky ball. The other group of people were not told the ball was lucky. The people that played with the "lucky" ball outperformed the people who weren't told the ball was lucky. There was another experiment with a memory test. Like the golf experiment, there were 2 groups. One group of participants were allowed to have their lucky charms, while the other group was not. Those who kept their lucky charms outperformed those who didn't. These experiments prove that "luck" is actually confidence in disguise. People don't need luck. They just need confidence. Check out this website for more information: http://www.livescience.com/8392-superstitions-bring-real-luck-study-reveals.html