In this video Professor Pablo Foncillas questions the world of superstitions. He gives the example of a friend who buys an amulet and sees how suddenly things start to go well for him. “Clearly, it will be thanks to that little stone collected from who knows where.” At least that’s what he thinks.
“What your friend or friend does not realize is that their good luck is simply the result of coincidence and in combination with their own efforts and abilities. There is no real connection between the necklace and the positive events they have experienced,” argues the researcher.
This is nothing more than a “victim of outcome bias” who views her hot streak “as irrefutable proof that the necklace has magical power.” But the reality is far from being like that, warns the professor. So, do charms work?
