Do Good Luck Charms Really Make You Luckier Or Are They Just Hocus Pocus?

Lots of people wear or keep good luck charms. Everything from the rabbit's foot through to a necklace through to a lucky piece of clothing that you wore when you had a special success.

We have a lot of different superstitions, some of which are based on historical or factual evidence. Walking under a ladder, for instance, has a number of different hazards since ladders aren't inherently stable things.

But lucky charms take on a life of their own. Much of which depends on the country you live in - the USA considers the number 7 to be lucky whilst the Chinese prefer a lucky 8.

An Irishman may be inclined to keep an effigy of a leprechaun whereas someone from Scandinavia would likely prefer one of a troll.

So, can these different good luck charms really bring you luck? And can forgetting to carry your special charm mean that you automatically become unlucky?

Weird as it may sound, because luck is at least partially belief based, there could be an underlying influence.

Sure, there's no scientific evidence for this but then science believes some odd stuff itself such as the Schrodinger's cat experiment where the cat is both alive and dead until the experiment is observed. And they have the audacity to call things like luck odd!

Our beliefs do affect our outcome, at least some of the time. Experiments have shown on more than one occasion that people who consider themselves lucky consistently find money whereas those who consider themselves unlucky can walk over a note laying in front of them on the pavement.

So there's a good chance that carrying a good luck charm will affect how we perceive our luck which in turn will affect how lucky we actually are.