Did you know? Some fear Friday the 13th as much as walking under a ladder. A mechanism that has a name in psychology: “self-fulfilling prophecy Or
“paraskevidekatriaphobia”. Here’s what this phenomenon consists of – and how to prevent these fears from overwhelming us – according to Amélie Boukhobza, clinical psychologist.
“A mix of superstition, cultural heritage and anxious anticipation”
Being convinced that you are going to get sick during your vacation, fearing that your partner will be unfaithful, being certain of failing your exams… By being convinced of certain things, they end up happening. And this is not due to chance: it is a well-known psychological phenomenon:
“The self-fulfilling prophecy is a terribly simple mechanism: we fear something… and we end up creating the conditions for it to happen. Friday the 13th is a perfect example!” admits the practitioner. “In summary, paraskevidekatriaphobia is nothing more than a mixture of superstition, cultural heritage and anxious anticipation.”
Far from being a simple folk superstition, this fear would have concrete consequences. In the United States, the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that every Friday the 13th, between 800 and 900 million dollars disappear. According to Futura-Sciences magazine, these losses are caused by trip cancellations, postponed major purchases and numerous absences from work (some preferring to stay at home, on their sofa, rather than face the outside world).
But beyond these figures, what fascinates Amélie Boukhobza is above all… the power of our mind.
“When we are convinced that a day will be bad, we approach it with alertness: we are more vigilant, more tense, sometimes even more clumsy. The slightest setback is then interpreted as confirmation of our fears. An unpleasant email? “I knew it.” A falling object? “Obviously.” Everything becomes proof, the rest goes unnoticed.”, she deciphers.
Here, fear completely modifies our behavior. It stiffens, impairs concentration, reduces our keenness of attention. “It can even increase small everyday accidents. Not because the date is unlucky, but because anxiety disrupts our regulatory abilities,” specifies the psychologist.
Our brain loves to anticipate: “chance is uncomfortable”
By ultimately thinking that an event is going to happen, those thoughts will influence our attitudes, and those attitudes make the event more likely.
“This is an anticipatory fear, not so different from the magical thinking of children. But it is also based on a powerful cognitive bias: our brain hates a vacuum. It prefers an irrational explanation to the idea of chance. Chance is synonymous with the absence of control. And this point is completely uncomfortable”, warns Amélie Boukhobza.
If in its mild form, paraskevidekatriaphobia is almost folkloric, in its more intense form, it can become very invasive: “avoidance, cancellation of appointments, increased anxiety upon waking, bodily tension. There, we are no longer in amused superstition. We are in conditioned anxiety”, warns the practitioner.
How to protect yourself from it?
Above all, we must understand one essential thing: the date has no power in itself.
“Then, it will be necessary to anticipate. Naming the process can already allow it to be loosened. Then, it is necessary to distinguish thoughts from reality. “I am going to have a bad day” is not a fact: it is an anxious hypothesis”, relates Amélie Boukhobza.
And above all, ask yourself what this fear contains.
“Friday the 13th sometimes serves as a receptacle for broader anxieties: fear of losing control, difficulty tolerating the unpredictable, excessive need for control. But here, the“the challenge lies above all in the control or non-control of events”,
concludes the psychologist.