Friday the 13th is considered an luckless day in western superstitious notion . Theories on why it has become known as ill-starred range from there being 13 people present at the last supper according to the Bible to Loki being the secret 13th secret Edgar Guest at a dinner party company for the Norse gods before generally do all variety of bedlam .
While it would be prosperous to dismiss such title ( just because someone says " Tuesday the 20th is sate with whimsy " does n’t intend you have to investigate it ) , is there any truth to the idea that the day is unlucky , or statistic to back it up ?
Well , there have been a few endeavor to bet into it . One team , concerned to see if they could quantify how superstitious people are and whether this dissemble their deportment , try traffic flow and accident datum . The idea wasthat they could " make reasonable illation as to just how superstitious mass are by examining their behaviour - for example , are people less probable to take and patronise on Friday the 13th ? "
The study , release in the BMJ in 1993 , found some tentative evidence that the great unwashed may alter their behavior on Friday the 13th .
" Fewer the great unwashed seem prepared to drive on motorways on Friday the 13th . About 1.4 % of the population may be so unnatural , " the squad wrote .
" Analysis of data compare , for illustration , Friday the 5th with Friday the 12th would decree out other unrecognised reasons for weekly alteration in ram pattems . "
According to the study , admissions to hospital from transportation accidents move up on Friday the 13th despite fewer car on the road . Though they note that the act of accidents study was too small to allow meaningful analysis , suggesting a bigger study would be necessary to stick out or refute , they add that " the risk of a transport accident on Friday the 13th may be increased by 52 % " .
For this , they offer the possibilities that large study will not obtain the same increase , there is some unrecognized factor affecting road traffic accidents , it is some quirkiness of how accidents are commemorate on Friday the 13th , Friday the 13th is really luckless , or the great unwashed who are superstitious are making behavioral change on that day which makes their drive unsafe .
" Are people ’s percept and beliefs ego fulfilling - if you trust something powerfully enough will it in fact happen to you ? " they pen in the word . " If the change in behaviour reveals itself by increase fear and anxiousness , or perhaps a sense of fortune , it may boil down concentration and increase the likelihood of an accident . "
While an intriguing thought , other studies looking at admissions to the emergency department have find no increase on the day .
" Although the veneration of Friday the 13th may exist , there is no concern that an increase in volume occurs on Friday the 13th equate with the other Clarence Day report , " one bombastic study depend at emergency departmentsin the US concluded . " Of 13 different conditions evaluated , only penetrating traumas were picture more often on Friday the 13th . "
" For those providers who work in the ED , work on Friday the 13th should not be any different than any other day . " Except , of course , for those extra penetrating traumas .
Other studies , such as one carry by the Dutch Centre for Insurance Statistics , have found that roads areslightly safer on Friday 13th .
“ I get hold it hard to believe that it is because people are preventatively more careful or just stay home , " mathematical statistician for the substance Alex Hoenreportedly toldthe Verzekerd insurance magazine at the time , " but statistically talk , drive is a trivial mo safe on Friday 13th . "
So , in summary : there is no real , conclusive grounds that there is an increment in accidents on Friday the 13th , with several present the opposite . Even those that do show a difference explain it with behavioural variety by the superstitious .
Furthermore , people who continue to believe that Friday the 13th is ill-omened are in all probability engaging in a form of confirmation diagonal . You may bruise yourself three times a month , or else have some other form of bad fate . This could happen on a Sunday the 1st , Friday the 13th , or any other day of the calendar month , but pass on that Friday the 13th issupposedto be ill-fated , which incident do you – a very superstitious someone – think you are going to retrieve ?
But possibly be on the lookout for penetrating trauma , just to be on the dependable side .
