A quick missive to report two items.

My latest column for Skeptical Inquirer magazine is “Jumping to Superstitious Conclusions.” A number of recent studies show that people who believe weird things are not very diligent researchers. When asked to investigate a simple problem, they give up more quickly and jump to a conclusion. These studies seem particularly relevant in a period when people are “doing their own research” on vaccines.

Earlier in January, I had a fun conversation with writer Gary Belsky about whether his beloved but beleaguered team, the Arizona Cardinals might be under the sway of a curse. I provided a few pithy quotes at the end of his January 14th article in the New York Times. It was a particular treat to chat with Belsky because I knew him as the co-author, with Cornell University psychologist Thomas Gilovich, of the great 2010 book, Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them.

That’s it for now. Stay warm.

SV

Today is the 13th day of 2022. Not a Friday but the only 13th day of the year. However, based on the two brief items below, it appears to be a lucky day for me.

For many years, I assigned the Freakonomics podcast in my behavioral economics course. The episodes are always informative and well-produced, and in my class, they always led to lively discussions.

As of today, I have achieved an important life goal: appearing on Freakonomics Radio in an episode entitled, “What Do Broken-Hearted Knitters, Urinating Goalkeepers, and the C.I.A. Have in Common?” The topic was superstitions and curses, and I was one of several people interviewed for the show. Apart from my contribution, there is some great material on curses, including sports curses and a discussion of “the sweater curse.”

As of today, the Spanish edition of my book Superstition: A Very Short Introduction (Breve Historia de la Superstición) is out from Alianza Editorial. In the United States, it is available in paperback from Amazon and in e-book format from Barnes & Noble.

The cover of the Spanish edition is somewhat unique in avoiding the more common black cat theme in favor of an image of crossed fingers.

That’s all for now. I hope that January 13th is a lucky day for you, too.

SV