The lottery curse, or is it just an irrational superstition?

I’m going to win the lottery! I’ll be rich!

Oh no, did I just curse myself?

Do you ever say that to yourself? I mean, do you think saying you’ll win the lottery puts a curse on yourself? Some people believe that if you say you will win the lottery, then you won’t. So they think it’s better to hope you win, but never mention it out loud. Is there any rationality in this? Or is it just an irrational superstition?

Well, the definition of a curse is a superstition of a person, thing, or influence that is supposed to bring bad luck. The key word here is “superstition”. By definition, a superstition is irrational.

Since a curse is an irrational belief, it is foolish to think that saying out loud that you will win the lottery will make you not win it.

You do not believe me? Well, let’s look at something in popular culture that has to do with hexes. It is believed that if a professional athlete appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, it will put a curse on them, causing them to underperform and never again reach the level of performance that landed them on the cover of the magazine in The first place. The media perpetuates this myth by giving examples of athletes who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and then blew it. Here are some examples they use:

• New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady made the cover in September 2008. Then, in the season opener, he tore his ACL and ACL in his left knee.

• In April 2010, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada of the New York Yankees appeared on the cover together. Within a week, Rivera, Petitte and Posada suffered injuries and Jeter went on to have the worst season of his career.

There are many more examples than this, which would lead some people to believe that hexes actually exist. However, this sports curse is simply something created by the media. There are even more examples of athletes who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated but never affected their performance at all. These things are not reported by the media.

So what does this have to do with the alleged curse of the lottery? It just shows that a curse is totally made up and therefore an irrational superstition. It doesn’t matter if you say out loud that you will win the lottery. That alone will not be the cause of your not winning it. The most likely explanation would be that you won’t win because the odds are not in your favor. By design, only a few people actually win the lottery. It has to do with luck and nothing more.