Whether you knock on wood or throw salt, superstitious behavior meant to "reverse" a perceived jinx may actually work, new research suggests, as those who participate in reversal of fortune practices creates the sense that their bad luck has been pushed away, ScienceDaily reports.
Have you ever said, "That will never happened," and then though that by saying so, it was more likely to come true? This common assumption is a symptom of magical thinking, or identifying a casual relationship between events that are otherwise unrelated. For instance, some people who think "magically" may perform a specific, random action in order to prevent something bad from happening, be it by touching a certain object, wearing a "lucky" piece of clothing so your favorite sports team won't lose the game, or even knocking on wood, the common "cure" to reversing predicted bad fortunes.
Researchers from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business conducted five separate experiments in which participants knocked on wood or threw a ball, superstitions thought to tempt fate and reverse bad fortune, or simply held a ball, which is not perceived to have any effect on future outcomes.
Those that performed a superstitious task were less likely to predict or imagine a vivid, negative outcome in their future than those who did not. Researchers concluded that perceiving that fate would be good could in fact make it so, at least in our minds.
"Our findings suggest that not all actions to undo a jinx are equally effective. Instead, we find that avoidant actions that exert force away from one's representation of self are especially effective for reducing the anticipated negative consequences following a jinx," Jane Risen, associate professor of behavioral science at Chicago Booth, told ScienceDaily. Risen also conducts research on judgment and decision-making, intuitive belief formation, magical thinking, stereotyping and managing emotion. "Engaging in an avoidant action seems to create the sense that the bad luck is being pushed away."
The study, titled "Reversing One's Fortune by Pushing Away Bad Luck," was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
