Understanding People’s Fear of Tempting Fate

Jane L. Risen and Thomas Gilovich

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2018, vol. 3, issue 4, 599 - 611

Abstract: One of the most pervasive and powerful superstitions is the belief that it is bad luck to “tempt fate.” We explore what people mean by tempting fate, both by reviewing the existing literature and by reporting the results of a cluster analysis of the different themes related to tempting fate highlighted in newspaper articles on the subject. We then examine the psychological processes that are responsible for the belief that to tempt fate in these ways is to increase the likelihood of bad events. Finally, we discuss some of the marketing implications of the widespread belief, or at least the widespread gut feeling, that to tempt fate is to invite misfortune.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/698868 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/698868 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jacres:doi:10.1086/698868

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the Association for Consumer Research from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().