Lucky charms and talismans

Perhaps if you believe it you behave differently on a subconscious level therefore perhaps you can say it works. I do not believe in 'lucky' things myself, the nearest I ever got was when I used to go clay pigeon shooting I used to listen to rock music on the way to a shoot to get my mind clear and ready, I would get quite stressed if I was staying too close to a shoot to listen to at least one cassette on the way there.

[keith_d]

Originally Posted by Mrs DJ Fridge

Perhaps if you believe it you behave differently on a subconscious level therefore perhaps you can say it works.

I'd go with a different explanation, starting with the idea that we have evolved to try and detect patterns in the natural world because that enhances our chances of surviving.

If two consecutive positive events happen when you're carrying a 'lucky' object your brain detects a pattern. From then on, when good things happen you associate them with your talisman and it appears to be working. This would be enhanced if someone credible tells you that your talisman is lucky, pre-disposing you to associate future positive events with it.

But we don't deal with bad events in quite the same way. Instead we tend to externalise them, blaming gods/fate/witchcraft rather than throwing our lucky talisman on the fire because it didn't save us.

Just my thoughts,

Keith.

Originally Posted by keith_d

I'd go with a different explanation, starting with the idea that we have evolved to try and detect patterns in the natural world because that enhances our chances of surviving.

If two consecutive positive events happen when you're carrying a 'lucky' object your brain detects a pattern. From then on, when good things happen you associate them with your talisman and it appears to be working. This would be enhanced if someone credible tells you that your talisman is lucky, pre-disposing you to associate future positive events with it.

But we don't deal with bad events in quite the same way. Instead we tend to externalise them, blaming gods/fate/witchcraft rather than throwing our lucky talisman on the fire because it didn't save us.

Just my thoughts,

Keith.

Sounds a fair view on the matter