For example, surveys have found that the greater your interest in sports, the more superstitious you’re likely to be. Intrigued by all the tales of superstitious superathletes like Michael Jordan, who famously wore his old college shorts under his uniform throughout his professional career, German researcher Lynn Damisch of the University of Cologne set out to test whether lucky charms actually work. Sure enough, in one study, she found that simply saying “Here is your ball. So far it has turned out to be a lucky ball.” boosted golf putting performance by 33 percent compared to saying “This is
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