WEBVTT - The Science of Lucky Pants 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.399 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.320 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.079 here's a quick question, Uh, in coming in to do 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.079 these podcasts, do you have any kind of a ritual 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.160 and kind of like do you have any lucky items 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.400 you bring with you? How do you prepare in terms 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.960 of superstition science podcast? Here's something that you never wanted 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.840 to know about. I used to wear lucky underwear, Okay, 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.559 but then I realized how ridiculous that was and I 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.519 quit the practice. Huh. Yeah, not of one wearing underwear, 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.839 but you know, specific pair. But yeah, I mean it's 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.479 very easy to attach meaning to something, right, And I 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.640 found myself and I think I'm pretty pragmatic right in 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.520 my thinking. And I found myself. Now you're like, no 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.120 underwear out underwear, out of mind? Um, But yeah, I 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:05.119 mean you can't help it sometimes make those associations, I guess, 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.560 I mean I can't. I mean I I on the 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.760 clothing front, I don't think I've ever experienced anything like 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.520 that because I tend to think of clothing and like, well, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.240 this pair of pants is more comfortable than the others. 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:18.959 Uh So in that respect, like those will be my 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.600 lucky pants and when I feel when I wear them, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.800 my body feels better and so lucky for you is comfortable. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.160 But but there are other rituals that I do have. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:29.760 I mean, not not so much rituals, but I guess 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:32.880 I'm I'm kind of there's something in me that's kind 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.720 of maybe an amulant junkie, like like I would I 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.240 feel like I could adapt really easily to say, like, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.720 you know, like thaie amulet culture um. In fact, I 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:47.640 carry a ganisha a genisha in my pocket like a 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:52.560 little figuring the the overcomer of obstacles. Yeah, the the 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.560 Hindu god that people may recognize as having kind of uh, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.400 you know, well very much an elephant look um and 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.280 standing on its vehicle is like a rat. It's not 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.760 that I like rubbed the figurine before each podcast or uh, 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:07.880 there's something about just I have to put it in 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:09.840 my pocket when I leave in the morning, and if 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:13.880 I don't watch myself, I'll accumulate other amulets along the way. 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.239 It'll be like something that just doesn't make a particularly 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.480 large amount of sense. Like when we were like cleaning 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.280 out my uh, some of my father's stuff after he died, 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.120 there was this roll of silver dollars and these weren't 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:28.960 like dear to him or anything. I don't think I've 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:30.919 ever seen these silver dollars, but I ended up like 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:33.240 slipping one in my pocket and carried it with me 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.320 a lot for several months. And that makes sense to me, though, 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.639 because that's that's something that you know, it's um maybe 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.560 you're asso sitting it with your father and you wanted 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:43.440 to keep it close to you or you know, as 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.280 a symbol of it. But they were if I were 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.320 gonna like consciously set out to like, all right, I 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.360 will pick out an amulet that reminds me of my 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.720 father or is you know, I mean he gets into 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.720 the whole thing, the whole power of sympathy uh and 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:56.600 uh and the way our minds working, we ended up 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.760 attaching meaning to this, to an object that has come 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.000 into contact with somebody. So if I were to like 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.040 consciously say, what's an object that was dear to my 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:05.960 father that I could carry as an amulet, that would 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:07.639 not be it. Like, I don't know why that ended 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.240 up in my pocket for so long. Um, or sometimes 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:11.880 it will be like a particularly good day or a 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:14.080 good outing or you know, or a good date that 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.040 I've gone on with my wife, and I'll like pick 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.519 up a rock and it'll go in my pocket, and 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:20.280 not even a pretty rot, not like any kind of 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.959 like a fine quartz kind of thing or something that 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.520 would wind up on a geologist shelf, but I'll end 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.040 up like sticking in my pocket and it will become 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:29.880 kind of an amulet of that day. And so I 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.360 have to watch that and try and keep it to 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.400 just working tendencies. I don't think know if it's hoarding, 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.600 if they're um, if they're kind of like magical amulets, right, yeah, yeah, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.600 And if it keepsakes, if you will, like tiny keepsakes 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.440 that remain on your person, right, that have have some 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.320 sort of power to you in some sense. Yeah, as 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.200 much as we hate to admit, these things do have 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.640 a power over us. And if you guys out there 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.280 haven't guessed it already, we're talking about that the science 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.240 of lucky pants. That's where we're coming back around to. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.320 that you know, we can't help but wear those lucky 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.200 pants or pick up that rock something that means a 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.560 lot to us, that makes us feel like, you know, 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:08.640 we've got some sort of control over the chaos of 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.760 our lives. Yeah, Like, what are some more that you've seen? Like, 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.840 because I like, I have a friend who does this 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:16.360 thing where if she is speeding through a red light, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.600 well not really a red light, let's say a an 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.320 orange light, yellow light turning, you're give a nerve break there. Yeah, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.120 she'll do this thing where she hits the roof of 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.000 the car like it's some sort of like a luck 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:30.520 thing to not get caught by a traffic cop. There's 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.080 the rub right, the luck, this idea that we are 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:37.560 actually getting some sort of magical luck from the ritual. Real, Yeah, 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.440 we're doing something to influence the outcome. Yeah, I was 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.080 thinking about the speed skater Chad Hedrick. He collects fortunes 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:47.480 from fortune cookies because before the two thousands six Games 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.520 in Turn, he got a fortune cookie that said your 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:55.240 golden opportunity is coming, and he went on to win gold, silver, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:05:00.520 and bronze medals And now he hangs out with fortune 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.600 cookie fortunes in his pocket at any time. He's become 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:06.919 a fortune cookie junkie. Wow, how does he say in 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.440 shape eating all that all that cookie, you know, Oh, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:11.240 I'm sure you know, he just probably called up his 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.680 local take out and you know, just chops through them 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.520 and doesn't necessarily eat him. I wonder I wonder be 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.760 gets irritated with the with the fortune cookies that don't 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.120 really have fortunes per se, but they're just kind of like, 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:27.600 here's a little bit of good advice. Um in mangled English. Yeah, 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.480 I get that on my tea sometimes my my tea package, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.040 you know, the little tag on it. And it depends 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:35.600 on I can always tell what sort of mood I'm 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.640 in because either I'm like, oh that's beautiful, or I'm like, 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:41.080 oh man, just take it somewhere else. Yeah, or it's 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.679 like that's not really cosmic insight. That's how am I gonna? 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.360 That's just good advice. That's just like saying something like 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:51.400 I don't know, um see, that's how devoid of feel 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:52.919 good or I end this morning. I can't think of 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:57.600 a of any kind of crappy little fortune cookie thing, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.200 but but any rate, um, yeah, people do. It's early 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.920 this morning, it is kind of early. But yeah, so 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.760 so things of this nature, people collecting items, people performing 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:13.360 rituals people um, sticking to some sort of lucky garment. 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.400 And I do mean sticking to it literally because some 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.400 we know with the sports people that sometimes they don't 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.919 change their lucky socks right right, like baseball, uh baseball 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.680 sports people. How illiterate am I in in the field 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.440 of sports that I can't use the correct terminology, but 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.920 baseball people who won't change their socks, and it's terribly smelly. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.560 I remember reading about there there was this pro wrestler 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.560 who wrestled by the name of Vader who it was 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:43.960 based out of Atlanta. I don't know if he lives 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:45.640 in the area or not. I think he's pretty much 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.760 retired now. But he was like this big, beefy, kind 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.160 of bull looking guy and supposedly there are people that 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.760 really hated wrestling him. Um. And you know this is 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.440 pro wrestling is all scripted violence going on with a 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.200 certain amount of improv But he his his shattering the illusion. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.760 Sorry oh um, but his his lucky thing was to 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:13.240 not wash his wrestling outfit, his his his jumper. Yeah yeah, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.200 And so it was a pretty horrendous at times. Well, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.160 and that probably became a ritual that actually did start 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.280 to have some sort of actual effect, right, because yeah, 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.120 because you know, you don't want to get too close 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.600 to the guy or have the match go too long, right, 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.240 even if kind of punching in the face. Yeah, and 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:32.640 you're under his arm. Um. Okay. So there's a term 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.400 for this, and it's called apophenia, and it's seen patterns 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.040 and meaningless data. And we've talked about this before. Our 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.360 brains despised randomness. We try to organize whenever we can. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.440 Whenever we see some sort of data in front of us, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:47.920 we try to see patterns. We might have a grilled 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.920 cheese sandwich. We might think that it looks like the 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.680 Madonna on it. As I'm sure a lot of people know. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.440 This was that on eBay. I think it was. I 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:59.000 think it was at some point, Yeah it was. I 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.280 mean it was at least after item because people thought, oh, 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.280 that looks like the Madonna burned into the grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah. 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:08.080 Our minds cannot help but make order out of chaos. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.160 I mean, it's how we survive. It's you need to 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.320 be able to navigate this this world that we live 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.120 in and and put one in two together when in 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.640 ways that can often save a life. That can allow 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.640 us to get to work at all. Uh, you know, um, 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.720 it ends up ends up being little things like you 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.480 you know that that when you when you feel that 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.200 kind of weird wind coming down the train tracks at 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.480 a at a subway or train station, you're like, oh, well, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:35.960 the trains about to get here. But then that's a 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.679 very logical one plus two equals three. But then in 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:44.120 other cases, uh, this ends up becoming what is called 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.160 a type one error where we end up um um 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.959 looking for signs that putting putting signs together that don't 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.680 really add up, but but we just think they do. 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.240 So Yeah. Actually, there's a Scientific American article called patternicity, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:02.079 Finding Meaningful Patterns and meaning Less Noise, and Michael Shermer wrote, 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.360 our brains are involved pattern recognition machines that connect the 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.880 dots and create meaning out of the patterns that we 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.920 think we see in nature. Sometimes a really is connected 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.560 to be sometimes it's not. When it is, we have 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.200 learned something valuable about the environment from which we can 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.880 make predictions that aiden survival, survival, and reproduction. Unfortunately, we 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.040 did not evolve a Bologney detection network in the brain 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.440 to distinguish between true and false patterns, and I love that. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.080 I thought, Yeah, we really do need a Bologney detection 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:31.559 network at this point. Yeah, I mean, it basically comes 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.319 down to the fact that that randomness just doesn't really 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:37.720 fit well with us. We don't we don't like the 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.040 idea of randomness. And ultimately, as many critics have pointed out, 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.360 like even a really chaotic system, there's there's order going 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.480 on in it, uh, And you can find order in 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.440 that system, but it's not always going to be in 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.000 in a predictive way. And this is called adventitious reinforcing. Again, 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.079 it's that accidental association between an outcome and whatever you're 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.800 doing at the time. Um So again you see that, 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.440 you know, people not change gene their dirty socks because 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:03.560 the big game is coming, and that's what they did 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.480 last time, and surely if they don't wear those same socks, 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.640 they will lose. Right. I wore dirty socks and my 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:16.240 team one. Therefore, my dirty socks altered physical reality, broke 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.959 every law of physics, and somehow made that team win. Therefore, 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:21.560 I need to make sure that I wear the same 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:25.160 dirty socks next week. But but now in these cases, well, 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.320 why not apply even more scrutiny to it and realize, 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.480 my socks need to be the same level of dirty 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.040 they are now, if they're more dirty, then maybe it'll 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.360 tip the balance. And then he ends up this like complicated. Well, 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.360 that's when it becomes a problem, because that's when you 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.079 can really kind of screw yourself, right, because you know, 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:42.840 what is first a talisman to kind of help you 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.200 through psychologically, when it becomes an obsession, then becomes obsession, 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.640 and then you could really kind of throw your your game, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.240 so to speak. Um, I thought it was really interesting 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.960 that behaviors DF Skinner took this this up with pigeons. Yeah, 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.000 and he put a few half starved pigeons in a 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.280 box and put food pellets down a shoot at random intervals, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:04.520 and the pigeons began to think, or at least he 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.640 thought this, because who knows what pigeons think, but he 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.520 assumed that whatever they did when the food arrives somehow 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.280 caused the food to arrive. So this is like they're 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.679 doing like little circles and stuff, right. Yeah. Yeah, he 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.679 said that one bird was conditioned to turn counter clockwise 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.439 about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.319 and another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.600 upper corners of the cage. A third developed a tossing response. 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:30.800 So it's kind of funny, like I don't like to 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.400 think of of myself as a pigeon, but you know, 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.520 looking at my past behavior and attaching meaning to things 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.280 don't necessarily have a meaning. It is sort of like 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.120 we're all pigeons, you know, in a cage making these 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:49.280 weird ritualistic turns to try to affect our environments. Um, 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:52.080 so it's really interesting. This is from a BBC article 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.679 Go figure why we think rituals can influence outcome? They 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:56.760 say the experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.800 of superstition. The bird behaves as if there was a 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.600 alsal relation between his behavior and the present presentation of food, 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.360 although such a relation is lacking. Huh. Well, you know, 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.760 it reminds me a lot of our previous research into 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.760 build sea bows too, and certainly some of the literature 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.400 makes this correlation as well, because like it could be 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:19.280 something as simple as, uh, I need to be at 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.880 my mental best for this meeting that I have every week, right, 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.400 so I must have a you know, some sort of 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.120 an energy drink to boost me up. And then to 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:32.440 what extent is that energy drink actually increasing your performance? 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.520 And to what extent is it just a ritual, a 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.400 superstitious ritual that has to take place for you to 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.240 feel confident enough to go into the uh in into 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.040 the meeting, to get into the mindset. And um, and okay, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:45.599 you can make an argument that yeah, you're getting a 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:50.560 caffeine boost, but now replace the energy drink with a 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.920 like a rosary or you know, or or or a 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.800 little amulet or or some sort of magical ceremony you 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:01.200 perform on the floor in front of the meeting room 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.520 with chalk and candles or something. Yeah, And then I'm 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:05.840 just thinking that. And then you're on your way to 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.840 O C D and you start tapping three times you 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.679 know which you know again, I'm that's it's just interesting 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:13.199 to see how you can take this to the nth 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.679 degree and your behavior really begins to splinter a little bit, 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.240 this little spinking of knocking and splinters. There's the whole 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.760 knock on wood thing, right, That's like a classic example. 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.920 I don't think of myself as being particularly superstitious. You know, 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.400 I'll be talking about something and I'll accidentally, you know, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.760 mention some sort of horrible thing that has not happened yet, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:31.760 and then I'll be like, knock on wood, and then 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:33.440 i have to find wood to knock on, like it 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.600 just makes sense. Likewise, um, the whole salt shaker thinks, 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:39.480 spill some salt and you have to throw some over 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.840 your shoulders. I'll find myself doing that just because I'll 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:44.600 have spilt a little salt, and I'll be like, well, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.880 it doesn't hurt, right, So I'll take like one grain 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:49.559 and then ill position myself so that if I throw 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.599 it over my shoulder goes into the sink. So that 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:54.520 way I'm also not making a mess. I think the 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:59.080 roots of that are in um shamanism too, right, I 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.160 think that it's like to dispel evil spirits somehow. I 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.440 have that watched and one of one of the knooks there. 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.120 But I mean, I'm sure that many different cultures have 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.640 many different interpretations for the whole salt trick, but nonetheless 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:13.960 it's it's a ritual, right right. But but then again 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.000 I would not freak out of idea. Oh. Another one 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:18.200 is the of course, the stepping on a crack and 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.280 breaking your mother back, which I don't think there's ever 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.160 been a proven cause and effect with that. Like every 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.160 nobody actually believes that. I mean with anyone with a 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:30.560 with a healthy mind is not believe that they're they're 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.520 they're stepping on a crack will somehow harm the vertebrae 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:36.560 of their mother. But people do get been out a 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.440 shape about it if they in some cases, so I mean, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.520 it's just if you end up letting it the um 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:43.800 get ahead of you. Yeah, and you see this too, 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.920 UM in extreme cases where if someone has lost a person, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.480 they start to see signs everywhere of you know, they 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:51.760 might have I think I read something about it was, uh, 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.720 one guy who lost his son. His son committed suicide, 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.440 and he began to see signs in everything open clothes, 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.080 pin and uh, you know all these different UM like 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.520 forty five degree angle UM shapes, and he began to 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:08.560 think that that was pointing to the time that his 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.760 son had committed suicide. And again, this is you know, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.080 this is us trying to have some sort of mastery 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.320 over what we can't control. Probably helped him a lot 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:20.640 to think, well, okay, there's there are signs that are 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.280 pointing just to at least tell me some aspect of this, 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.080 you know, the time that my son passed away, or 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:31.200 to get a better rooted feeling and what had happened. Um. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.480 So it's interesting to see it in that way. You 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.240 can take that situation trying to master something you can't control, 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.480 and if you you transpose it back on some like 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:43.560 prehistoric setting. You know, some guy drugging through the woods, um, 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.800 and there is a predator out there that because will 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.800 eat him, or a human enemy, and your amount of 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:53.480 control over what is going to happen depends on your 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:57.040 ability to pick up signs in the world around you. Uh, 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.840 you know, the sound of footsteps in the dark, the 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.280 the the the silhouette of something against the moonlight, things 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.680 of that nature. Right, And so we're sort of hardwired 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:08.880 to air on that side, right, which is better for us, 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:10.720 because that's why we have gotten to the point where 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.440 we have right as a species. Because then it's a 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:14.920 false alarm and that's when we laugh. Right. According to 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:16.880 some of the theories about laughter, that laughter is a 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:20.000 response to say, oh, I'm not really in physical danger. Yeah, 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.440 it's a it's a release, yeah, and in a signal 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.440 to to other humans that oh, we're not really going 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.200 to die. It's all right. That wasn't really a savor 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.720 tooth tiger, but better to be sure are on the 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:30.640 side of cushion, like you said. That's right, that's I 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.400 mean behind every good joke is a is a false 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.800 savor tooth tiger in a way, right right, because it's 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:40.120 a benign threat. Trust no one. You heard it here? Yeah, 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.800 that's right. When we come back, we're going to talk 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:50.400 about Lady Luck and if she actually exists. This podcast 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.280 is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:58.040 and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.120 the spark which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity dot 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:08.320 com and explore the answers to life's questions. All right, 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:14.960 and we're back. So Lady Luck LEO are not okay? Well? Uh, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.120 Luck is not a lady tonight. I don't know. I mean, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.520 it's it's a nice thought, right, likes a lady. She's 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.520 shining down on you. She has a bugle beat address 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.680 on Thank you for resisting the urge to break into song. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:31.080 By the way, I mean, this podcast isn't over yet, okay. Uh. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.600 There is an article called Apophania Definitions Analysis by Sandra L. 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.119 Hubsurance really interesting. She talks about the gambler's fallacy and 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:42.200 holds that in a sequence of random events, past outcomes 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.200 influence future outcomes. The off sided example is a game 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.800 of roulette where black has spun seven times in a row. 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.760 The players around the table begin to all the players right. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.160 They all begin to feel that their luck is running 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.480 out and that the red is due soon or um, 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:01.200 that they're having a streak in black will continue to appear, 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.680 when in actuality, the probability of the next spin being 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.040 read or black is the same as ever. And this 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.320 you see this all the time at gambling. Right, there's 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.879 this idea that you know you've got good luck tonight. Um, 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.240 but that's kind of what gets us in trouble. And 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.840 according to psychology today, luck really actually wouldn't exist without 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:29.359 the following conditions. Okay, rabbit foot, rabbit foot, troll. You 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:31.280 have to take a chance in order to have a chance, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:33.840 which is kind of a thing. It's like if you 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.440 don't play the lottery, you cannot win the lottery exactly. Um. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.040 But it Studies show that when outcomes are in certain 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.840 pessimistic people tend to avoid these situations and are averse 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.320 to to risk, right, whereas optimistic people don't. So optimism 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.199 is actually necessary to take a chance. So not only 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:52.560 you have to take a chance, but you kind of 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.440 have to be like, yeah, hey, I'm taking a chance, right, Okay, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:59.080 So it goes back to that optimism boost we're talking about. Yeah, 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.600 guy walks in to a casino. Guy feels confident enough 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.919 to play roulette because he has uh, you know, a 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:10.120 statue of in his pocket. Well, and even just map 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.679 back to other times in your life where you felt lucky, Um, 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.560 something happened. The sequence of events. I always think about this, 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.440 always feels like something builds up to something happening, and 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:21.680 always like, oh, yeah, there's this pattern here. But the 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:23.520 fact of the matter is is that I happened to 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:25.359 be in the right place at the right time, But 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.600 not only that I was open to the experience and 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.560 had put myself out there or whatever it was. So 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:32.879 that's kind of how I think about it. You've got 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.560 the gambler, Yes, who's who. Yeah, they did it. They gambled, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.520 so therefore you know they got a fifty percent chance 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:40.560 whether or not they're going to make good on it. 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.040 But that's about the same for anything that you try 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.760 to do in your life. Right, more or less, I think, yeah, 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:48.720 I guess what you're trying to do. Sometimes there's like 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:51.360 ten percent, sometimes seventy five percent, but still there's there's 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.280 a chance. There's a chance. Yeah. Uh. The second thing 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:58.280 is unexpected actions come from the subconscious. Your unconscious brain 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.679 may actually see what you need to see before your 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.199 conscious brain knows. This is called preemptive perception, and it's 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:06.920 thought to be subserved by part of the prietal lobe 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.040 of the brain. Yeah. This reminds me of of priming memory, 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.160 which is one of the types of memory that we've 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.800 talked about in the past, where you're not consciously aware 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.240 of it, but your brain is forming this, uh, this pattern. 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.119 It's associating one thing with the other. Yeah. And it 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.200