Does carrying a lucky charm make us perform better: a famous experiment and its failed replications
A 2010 study reported that lucky charms improved performance, but larger replications found no such effect. What does this say about the evidence?
Results for "replication study"
Five Elements Generating, Controlling, Checking and Transforming: Why Does Excessive Generation Harm, and What Are Counter-Generation and Counter-Control?
Why too much generation harms in the Five Elements, what counter-generation and counter-control mean, and how Uyên Hải Tử Bình states the rule.
Do People Turn to Divination More When They Feel Anxious? Research on Stress, Control and Ritual
Anxiety and ritual seeking track together in observational data, but experiments that induced lost control have not replicated.
What is pseudoscience, and why is drawing the line between science and pseudoscience far harder than it looks
What is pseudoscience? A look at the definition, Popper's demarcation criterion, critiques from Duhem, Quine and Kuhn, and the practical stakes involved.
What Is Synastry Chart Comparison and Why Has It Not Been Proven?
Synastry compares two birth charts through planetary aspects between two people: how it is read, where schools differ, and why science has not confirmed it.
Does Friday the 13th Make Stocks Fall, and Do Vietnamese Have Similar "Bad Days"?
Friday the 13th stock studies give conflicting results, and any effect is tiny. Vietnamese lunar bad days have not been studied the same way.
Does the Full Moon Make People Act Differently: Crime, Birth Counts and Sleep Through the Lens of Data
Large meta-analyses find no link between moon phase and crime or birth counts. For sleep, the evidence remains contested and depends on light exposure.
Does the Enneagram Really Have Nine Types? What an Overview of More Than One Hundred Research Samples Says
A review of 104 research samples found the Enneagram correlates reasonably with the Big Five, yet no study confirms a nine-type factor structure.
The Gauquelin Mars Effect: The One Time Astrology Looked Right in the Data, and Why Researchers Still Reject It
The Gauquelin Mars Effect was astrology's strongest apparent hit in statistical data, but later independent tests failed to replicate it.
When a tarot reading 'works': the cards or the sitter's belief? What the research says
Two small studies disagree on whether paranormal belief makes sitters rate a tarot reading as more accurate. The evidence stays thin and unreplicated.
Can Astrology Predict Personality? What the Double-Blind Tests Say
Do astrologers matching charts to unknown people beat chance? Double-blind tests, Carlson 1985 to Hartmann 2006, found they did not.
How MBTI and Big Five differ, and why psychology uses Big Five
MBTI and Big Five measure nearly the same four personality dimensions, but MBTI splits people into 16 discrete groups while Big Five keeps continuous scores.
Does Learning Astrology Make People More Certain About Themselves? Astrology as Self-Affirmation in Times of Crisis
Astrology students in a small 1998 study grew more certain about themselves, while psychology and German students did not.
Why Hanoi Apartment Buyers Consult Feng Shui: Research on Spiritual Security When Buying a Home
Trương Thị Thúy Hà's 2016 study found Hanoi apartment buyers consult feng shui when choosing and arranging a home, seeking spiritual security.
Do Directors Aged 49 to 53 Invest Less? The Tuoi Han Belief and Business Decisions in Vietnamese Firms
A 2024 study of Vietnamese firms links lower fixed asset investment to directors aged 49 to 53, the tuoi han years. The effect is larger in small firms.
Why We Avoid the Belongings of the Dead and Seek New Year's Luck: Contagious Magic in the Modern Mind
Contagious magic rests on two laws: contact transfers properties, and similarity means shared essence. Rozin's 1986 experiments show they still shape us.
Why superstition never disappears: from Skinner's pigeon experiment to an evolutionary model
Superstition survives because our learning machinery produces it: chance coincidences become rituals, and false beliefs may cost less than missed causes.
Do spiritual believers 'see' more: the face-in-noise experiment and the lenient response threshold
Experiments show mystical believers report seeing faces in ambiguous images more often, yet their visual sensitivity is unchanged.
Can Life Path Numbers Predict Who Succeeds? A Numerology Test on Nobel Laureates
A numerology test on 806 Nobel laureates found birth-number distribution no different from chance. Why does numerology still sound true to so many people?
Why Prices So Often End in 8: How Sellers Use Lucky Numbers in Pricing
Prices ending in 8, 88 or 168 may attract buyers. Research on superstition and price clustering shows lucky numbers can work as a pricing tool.
Saying you don't believe yet still observing taboos: why 'abstaining brings good fortune' persists even among the highly educated
Many people know a taboo has no scientific basis yet still follow it. Psychology calls this acquiescence, a mechanism that reconciles intuition and reason.
Do Investors Who Favor the Number 8 Earn More? Evidence from Stock Exchanges
Evidence from Taiwan's futures exchange and IPO data shows that choosing prices and tickers by lucky numbers comes with lower returns.
Do AI Face-Reading Apps Actually Predict Personality? What Machine Learning on 31,367 Photos Says
AI face-reading apps return Big Five profiles, but machine learning on 31,367 photos found only a modest group-level signal, not enough to judge one person.
Is AI Tarot Reading Accurate and How Does It Differ from a Human Reader? A Scientific and Practical View
Is AI Tarot reading accurate, and how does it differ from a human reader? An analysis based on 2025 psychology research on how accurate Tarot spreads feel.
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos: What Does the Foundational Book of Western Astrology Say?
Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos has four books setting out astrological principles, planetary influences, and why Ptolemy treated astrology as conjectural knowledge.
Why Humans See Patterns Where None Exist: From Faces in Clouds to Repeating Numbers in Life
Apophenia explains why the brain sees faces in clouds, repeating numbers and patterns in random data, plus where the line to delusion lies.
What Palm Reading Is: How Palm Lines Are Read and Why They Cannot Predict the Future
Palm reading is a folk divination practice that reads palm lines to infer personality and destiny, yet it has no scientific basis.
Is Finding a Partner Through Kinh Dịch, Tarot, or Tử Vi Reliable? A View from Origins and Evidence
Can Kinh Dịch, Tarot, or Tử Vi truly find you a partner? This analysis weighs their origins, reading methods, and experimental evidence so you can decide.
Why 'believe it if it fits, argue if it doesn't' fortune-telling clips spread so fast online: the mechanism that makes a vague reading sound personal
Why vague fortune-telling clips spread online: the Barnum effect, confirmation bias, the need for control, and algorithms that favour controversial content.
The Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Zen School: Trần Nhân Tông's Monastic Renunciation, the Three Patriarchs, and the Thought of 'Cư trần lạc đạo'
The Trúc Lâm Yên Tử school founded by Trần Nhân Tông: its three patriarchs and the idea of cư trần lạc đạo, living in the world yet glad in the Way.
The Forer Experiment: A Whole Class Received the Same Personality Description and Everyone Felt It Was Accurate, Plus How to Test It Yourself in Ten Minutes
In his 1949 paper, Bertram Forer reports giving 39 students one identical personality sketch from an astrology book; the class still rated it accurate.