A lucky find

All horrible puns aside, I just read an incredibly interesting article about superstition for my Research Methods in Psychology class. Even though it was a few pages, it had four experiments, a couple of which were really thought-provoking.

One experiment had participants putt ten times, using a "lucky" ball, or a ball that "everyone else has used." (The ball was the exact same every time.) The people who used the "lucky" ball had more successful putts than the control group, suggesting that believing you have luck on your side improves subsequent performance.

Another experiment was a memory game, turning over pairs of cards to get a match (18 total pairs), and each participant was either in the presence or absence of their personal lucky charm. Participants who used the lucky charm completed the game faster than the control group, furthering the belief that superstition fuels performance.

What's great about this is that it makes absolutely no logical sense. Well, almost none. While it's true that the type of golf ball you use has no effect on the number of successful putts you make, it's the raised self-efficacy (belief in your own abilities) that heightens our confidence, and ultimately brings us to greater success.

My best personal example of this is every time I pitched in high school. I consider it more of a routine than a superstition, but I suppose the same principles apply. I always wore my practice shirt under my uniform, which was certainly more of a comfort thing for me. Then there was what I always did after every pitch caught by the catcher - walked towards the plate, caught the ball, and stepped in the exact same place on the mound, stepping behind the rubber and turning around to face the batter. It's not that I thought that helped me succeed, but it did make me feel comfortable on the mound, which is always important for pitchers.

So I guess it makes sense to be superstitious, even though you wouldn't really think that. I'd also like this opportunity to cite the article I read for this post. If SOPA ever pans out, there's no way I can safely assume I can just talk about an article without bad things happening.

(Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2009). Keep Your fingers Crossed! How Superstition Improves Performance. Psychological Science, 21, 1014-1019.)