When I made the varsity track team my freshman year of high school, I almost immediately displayed how out of step I was with nearly everyone else. I snatched the jersey I wanted from the pile our coach offered, concerned that others would want it too … but that was not the case. Some team members looked at me askance, as if I was a little off.
Perhaps I am. I was intent on securing number 13.1
I’d grown up hearing all the common superstitions of the time. Unlucky Friday the 13th was one of the bigger ones, perhaps because of its relative rarity or lack of logic.2 I didn’t care much about most of them: we had a large stray black cat adopt us early in my childhood, and I adored that cat; and even more, I adored Dave Concepción.3
I don’t believe in luck. I also don’t believe in that phrase from the Terminator movie franchise: “no fate but what we make.” Our minds seek patterns in the chaos, and tidy explanations where none really exist.4 Somewhat related, neuropsychology has advanced enough to reveal how the placebo effect—and its counterpart, the nocebo effect—can affect us.
These effects are much more than the wide understanding of using a placebo (a neutral substance used as a control to compare drugs’ and/or dosages’ efficacy) in medical research. The placebo effect is simply this: the belief that something will help one makes that outcome more likely. And the nocebo effect is almost as straightforward: the belief that something will have no effect, or will hurt one, makes that outcome more likely. Obviously, that isn’t a causal relationship, but these effects can be powerful… especially when one applies the idea to our neuroplasticity.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. And with that as context, I present today’s MotD:
It’s been too long since I’ve listened to Morphine. I hit the jackpot when this song started playing in my mind this morning, and will cash in once I’m done with my work.
I read that it’s Taylor Swift’s favorite number, which is probably reducing the silly superstition. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
there is good reason to not walk under a ladder, FFS!
yep, there’s another hall of fame I’m mad at
I try to resist that, but it’s “a symptom of life” for most humans
My favorite number as well…always has been!
Triskaidekaphiliacs of the world, unite!