1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogel bam here. One day in in Rochester, 3 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: New York, a woman named Sandra rode her bike into 4 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,120 Speaker 1: town to do some shopping. She locked up her steed, shopped, 5 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:22,240 Speaker 1: and came back to find it gone devastated. She reported 6 00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: the loss to the cops, who warned her that the 7 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: chances of recovery were slim. Later that day, at a 8 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: coffee shop, she spotted another policeman and decided to tell 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 1: her sad tale again. Promising to have a look. The 10 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: cop hopped on his bike and went off on patrol, 11 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: but not before Sandra had given him a four leaf 12 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 1: clover to boost his chances. Within minutes, the officer had 13 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: found her wheels. Never he reported, had he ever recovered 14 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: a missing item so quickly. The clover had apparently done 15 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 1: its work. Nearly as interesting as the happy outcome of 16 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: this story is the fact that Sandra had a spare 17 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: four leaf clover on hand. It was no accident she 18 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: collected them. In fact, she had so many that she 19 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,839 Speaker 1: made a habit of giving them away. In this she's 20 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: not as unusual as you might think. The Guinness World 21 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,559 Speaker 1: record for the largest collection of four leaf clovers goes 22 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: to one Edward Martin of Cooper Landing, Alaska, who has 23 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: amassed more than a hundred thousand of them. And that's 24 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: truly astounding when you consider the fact that your chances 25 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: of finding a four leaf clover are only one in 26 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: ten thousand. So four leaf clovers are supposed to bring 27 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:31,399 Speaker 1: good luck, and clearly some people really want to pile 28 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: it on. But just what is it that makes them 29 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: so lucky? The legend goes all the way back to 30 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: Adam and Eve. One tale tells that as they were 31 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,200 Speaker 1: being hustled out of the garden of Eden, Eve plucked 32 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: a four leaf clover to carry with her as a 33 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,240 Speaker 1: souvenir of paradise. The druids of the ancient Celtic world 34 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,919 Speaker 1: were also big fans of four leaf clovers and carried 35 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: them around to ward off malevolent spirits. This practice evolved 36 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:57,559 Speaker 1: into a medieval theory that a four leaf clover would 37 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: give you the ability to spot fairies and take vase 38 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,000 Speaker 1: of action if necessary. As a result, back in the 39 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: Middle Ages, kids entertained themselves by ferreting out the necessary 40 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: stems and heading out on fairy hunts. With the little 41 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: green plants enjoying such popularity, it's no wonder that Saint 42 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 1: Patrick decided to use them as a teaching tool when 43 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:20,079 Speaker 1: he set about converting Ireland to Christianity. The four leaf 44 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:23,239 Speaker 1: variety being in short supply, he settled on the ubiquitous 45 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,959 Speaker 1: three leaf clovers to explain the three and one nature 46 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: of the Holy Trinity. One leaf stood for the Father, 47 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 1: one for the Son, and the third for the Holy Spirit, 48 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: all united on the single stem of the Godhead. Similarly, 49 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,679 Speaker 1: a poem in the popular tradition holds that the four 50 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: leaves on the lucky clover signify fame, wealth, health, and 51 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: faithful love. Along these lines, there's an English belief that 52 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: if you dream of clover, you're guaranteed a happy and 53 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: prosperous marriage. West of England, in Cornwall, some people alleged 54 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: that if pixies stole your child and left a changeling 55 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:57,239 Speaker 1: in its place, the only way to get your own 56 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: offspring back was to lay a four leaf clover on 57 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: the impostor So, we've established that four leaf clovers have 58 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: been considered powerfully lucky for a long time. But why 59 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: clover is a type of pa and It's valued by 60 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: farmers for a couple of reasons. Cows love to eat it, 61 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: bees like to fill up on its nectar, and the 62 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,119 Speaker 1: plant itself likes to fill its boots with nitrogen. That's 63 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: to say, clover is very good at pulling nitrogen from 64 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 1: the air and rooting it in the ground for itself 65 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: and other plants to eat. There are over three species 66 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: of clover, but the best one for the soil is 67 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: known as white clover or Trifolium repens. Trifolium repens also 68 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: happens to be the kind of clover that produces the 69 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: lucky four leaf aberration. That fourth leaf, as it turns out, 70 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: is the result of a suppressed gene that sometimes fails 71 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: to be suppressed. Like many plants, white clover normally grows 72 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: leaves in groups of three because for reasons no one 73 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:58,640 Speaker 1: is entirely sure of Lots of plants, from sunflowers to pineapples, 74 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: grows segments and number is in the Fibonacci sequence, you know, 75 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: it goes up one, one, two, three, five, eighty one, 76 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,880 Speaker 1: et cetera, with each new number being the sum of 77 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: the two previous numbers. It's also what the golden spiral 78 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 1: is constructed from so the genetic anomaly that creates four 79 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,880 Speaker 1: leaf clovers only happens in one in ten thousand clovers. 80 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,000 Speaker 1: It's that rarity that accounts for the luck associated with 81 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:28,560 Speaker 1: four leaf clovers. In other words, you're lucky just to 82 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: find one, So it stands to reason, a certain kind 83 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: of reason, that more luck will follow in that spirit, 84 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: here's a bit of clover trivia. In two thousand nine, 85 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: after studying ways to cross breed this lucky plant, a 86 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: farmer in Japan grew a clover with fifty six leaves 87 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: on it, again off from the Fibonacci sequences norm of 88 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: fifty five by one. Logically, that makes it fourteen times 89 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:56,640 Speaker 1: luckier than a mere four leaf clover. Or or, rather illogically, 90 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: this is what scholars like to call magical think. Because 91 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 1: of the way our brains operate, we're constantly looking for 92 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: connections in order to explain the happenstance of the world 93 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 1: around us. Magical thinking kicks in when we refuse to 94 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,360 Speaker 1: revise our conclusions despite all the evidence to the contrary. 95 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: Take the story of Sandra and her stole and bicycle. 96 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: Both she and the officer who found it attribute the 97 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,200 Speaker 1: happy outcome to the four leaf clover she gave him 98 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,760 Speaker 1: from her collection. But a skeptic might ask how someone 99 00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 1: toting a quiver of the lucky clover's would have had 100 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: the misfortune of being robbed of her bike in the 101 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 1: first place. Magical thinking skirts around awkward questions like this 102 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 1: and sticks to the convenient details while ignoring the inconvenient ones. 103 00:05:38,839 --> 00:05:41,479 Speaker 1: That said, in this case, at least, magical thinking is 104 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:49,359 Speaker 1: a lot more fun than skepticism. Today's episode was written 105 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,160 Speaker 1: by Ocean Kuran and produced by Tyler Klang. For more 106 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: on this and lots of other magical topics is at 107 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,599 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of 108 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,080 Speaker 1: iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio as 109 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 110 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.