A lot of people are superstitious.

The funny thing about superstitions is that we hatch an idea (or are told) that there is a connection between one thing and another and, if it suits us, we’re prepared to go on believing it even when there is no sensible basis for there being a connection between the two.

Horse shoes are lucky. Finding a four leaf clover will bring you good fortune. You should carry around a rabbit’s foot for good luck (yours that is, not the rabbit’s).

Many elite sportsmen and women have superstitions about when they put on their shirt, which ball they serve with after they’ve served an ace or what order they do things in before a big game.

Of course, they do all these same things on the occasions when they don’t win, don’t serve an ace or get carried off the field injured; but that doesn’t necessarily stop them repeating the superstition next time.

Human beings rarely do things for no reason; so what would explain this strange behaviour?

Recently I got an insight into one aspect of this myself. I started playing golf a few years ago. I bought a set of irons and added a driver (which I’ve always been able to hit reasonably well) and a 3 wood that, in my hands, could make a golf ball do the strangest things.

Out of frustration I took the 3 wood out of my bag and, through two house moves and three years, it was banished to the garage of whichever house we were in.

Recently I played at a golf course where you actually needed a 3 wood for two of the holes and so, the next time I played there, I found the club, gave it a stern talking to and took it to the course.

Technically, there is no real difference between the shot I have to hit off the tee with my driver and the one I hit with the 3 wood, if anything the 3 wood should be easier.

But my associations with what happened to the golf ball in the seconds after I’d been standing over it on the tee were all bad. My unconscious knew that the ball was destined to slice wildly to the right and seeing a golf ball against the distinctive shape of the club head primed me to play the shot I’d always played.

However, after three years these associations had gone. I could swing the club as I would all the others and with a similar outcome (sometimes a half-decent shot, sometimes not).

But the great thing was that the 3 wood no longer felt cursed.

Recently a researcher set out to discover if those lucky superstitions and lucky charms actually helped. Participants were told to bring a lucky charm in with them and then half had it taken away.

The people who still had their lucky charms performed better in a memory game because they felt more confident. They also set higher goals for themselves.

So it seems you can give yourself a better chance when you apply a little superstition.

And I’m certain that the new set of clubs (or racquet or training shoes) could make all the difference to your game… provided that you give yourself a more positive set of associations to anchor onto them.

I would add one note of caution: when superstitions become too strong they can undermine someone’s ability to learn. So by all means have your lucky charm, but deploy all your logical resources too if you want to be really successful.

Source:Association for Psychological Science (2010, July 14). Keep your fingers crossed: How superstition improves performance. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 8, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/07/100713122846.htm

Image courtesy: Christopher Maclaren