Cue the doom: Friday the 13th is upon us.
If you’re used to this day being an unlucky one, you’re probably right — but that doesn’t mean it may not also be all in your head.
According to a behavioral health physician, a lot of what we perceive as bad luck comes down to our mindset, and changing the way you approach the day could be the key to making it a lucky one this year.
Friday the 13th has long haunted the cultural imagination. The fear of this date is as deep as its history; there are even two terms to describe the phobia: paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia, respectively.
But does believing in bad luck bring it about?
Dr. Anna Costakis, a New York-based behavioral health physician with Northwell Health, thinks so.
“Our mindset is powerful. When we’re told that a full moon causes ‘crazy things’ to happen, we start noticing them because we’re expecting it. The same applies to Friday the 13th,” she told The Post.
Costakis notes that superstitions are rooted in confirmation bias, the human tendency to interpret evidence as confirmation of existing beliefs.
“People interpret things through the lens of what they’re looking for. Going into Friday the 13th, you’re looking for things that have gone wrong as confirmation for what you’re already assuming is going to happen that day, which then only reinforces the negative state of mind that you’re putting out there.
“That moves us towards an anxious and negative place of expecting the negative to happen and looking for the negative to happen as opposed to actively switching that to the positive.”
Very superstitious? Think like Taylor Swift
Research on superstitious belief has suggested that people rely on superstitions in stressful situations to gain an illusion of control over outcomes.
While superstition and confirmation bias can easily skew towards the negative and anxious, Costakis maintains that a positive bias can lead to a sunny view and experience of Friday the 13th.
“We are able to change the way we think about something like Friday the 13th by really working that confirmation bias in our favor, believing, ‘This is going to be an awesome day,’” she said.
Approaching the day with a rose-colored lens and Costakis assures that everything you encounter can reinforce the good vibes.
Costakis credits Taylor Swift, who turns 35 this Friday the 13th and counts 13 as her favorite number, with rebranding the bad luck. Frequently painting the number 13 on her hand and speaking openly about its role in her success, Swift has influenced her die-hard fan base and a new generation of superstitious folks to view Friday the 13th as a good omen.
“This change in perception highlights how our mindset can skew toward the positive, identifying good things and making the day ‘lucky,’” said Costakis.
Recently, psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen shared that repeating this eight-word morning affirmation can promote feelings of peace and defeat negative thinking.
To put luck in your sights and bad juju in the rearview, Costakis suggests taking positive affirmations a step further.
“I think envisioning positive things rather than all the doom and gloom around the superstition of Friday the 13th is a way to make your own luck. Your vision of your reality is very much what manifests because you’re looking for it,” she said.
But what about all history of unlucky Friday the 13ths?
Historically speaking, Friday the 13th has played host to all manner of ugly, including but not limited to the arrest and subsequent massacre of the Knights Templar in 1307, the bombing of Buckingham Palace in 1940, the murder of New Yorker Kitty Genovese in 1964, and the death of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996.
Costakis says that these events are coincidental, and our grouping of them is yet another example of negative confirmation bias.
“You could pick any other random day and then look through all of history, across all the decades, and find negative stuff that happened that day too. It’s the lens we’re looking through, and we can find anything to justify it,” she noted.
Costakis explained that some are more predisposed to fear and superstition than others.
“Anything can cause a phobia or the obsessive and anxious thoughts that someone gets stuck on. When general culture is already anxious about something, and then you plant it on someone who is already at baseline pretty anxious, it may make it tip over the edge.”
How to make Friday the 13th lucky
For those looking to back away from said edge, Costakis has some tips.
“For anyone who has trouble doing the things that they would normally do on Friday the 13th, there are things that may turn their luck around and make them less anxious,” she said.
She suggests the easily spooked lean into positive bias and grounding distraction techniques.
“Whatever it is that helps take them out of their head. Go exercise. Go spend time with friends. Do what you need to do to pull yourself away from the swirling thoughts of anxiety.”
Costakis added that she has patients who cannot fathom committing to anything on Friday the 13th for fear of something going terribly wrong. For these folks, facing fear is the only way through it.
“My recommendation is exposure therapy. The more you can lean into that anxiety, the more you can give yourself evidence to the contrary of all of those negative thoughts that you’re accumulating in your head.”
