According to new research at the University of Cologne, people who have some form of talisman or amulet often are better at performing certain tasks because this kind of superstition increases their confidence.

“I watch a lot of sports, and I read about sports, and I noticed that very often athletes – also famous athletes – hold superstitions,” said Lysann Damisch of the University of Cologne in Germany. “Michael Jordan wore his college team shorts underneath his NBA uniform for good luck; Tiger Woods wears a red shirt on tournament Sundays, usually the last and most important day of a tournament. I was wondering, why are they doing so?” Lysann Damisch said, who, interested about this issue, along with colleagues Barbara Stoberock and Thomas Mussweiler, also of the university, designed a set of experiments to see if activating people’s superstitious beliefs would improve their performance on memory and dexterity games.

In one of the experiments, study participants were told to bring their lucky talismans on the test. Then they took these objects from them and photographed them. People have brought with them all kinds of objects - from old stuffed toys, pressed four-leaf clovers, crosses, and bracelets, to wedding rings.

Half of the study participants were given their charm back before the test started; the other half were told there was a problem with the camera equipment and they would get it back later.

During test, the participants resolved memory games on the computer, and the results showed that the group who had their talismans with them, did better. Subsequent tests confirmed that the mentioned group had more confidence and security in their success, which encouraged them to achieve better results. Also, people in this group set and higher goals for themselves in these games.

Of course, even Michael Jordan lost basketball games sometimes. Therefore, if you have a lucky item, it doesn’t mean that you will always be better and more successful than others. But it seems that in this case, superstition certainly could help you.