Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, April 1899: Volume LIV, No. 6, April 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, April 1899: Volume LIV, No. 6, April 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
In the first place, marked preference is shown for certain digits both
for units' and tens' places. This statement is based on a study of the
6,863 guesses falling below one thousand. Of these, 4,238 were made by
men and 2,625 were made by women. By tabulations of the digits used in
units' place by both men and women, the following facts have been
determined: 800 used 9, while but 374 used 8; 1,070 used 7, and 443
preferred 6; 881 used 5, and only 295 preferred 4; 862 chose 3, while
331 used 2; 577 ended with 1, while 1,230 preferred 0 as the last
figure.
A tabulation of the figures used in tens' place shows, save in the
case of 2 and 3, where 2 is used oftener than 3, the same curious
preferences, but in a much less marked degree. To go into detail, 850
chose 9 for tens' place, while 559 took 8; 907 used 7, while only 637
selected 6; 748 took 5, while only 536 used 4; 601 used 3, and 634
chose 2; 728 used 1, as against 872 who used 0.
Were it not that the selections here in the main correspond with the
preferences shown in units' place, the significance of these figures
would be much less important; but the evidence here can not wholly be
ignored when taken in connection with the facts obtained in the
preferences shown in the case of the figures occupying units' place.
We are enabled, then, as a result of the study of these guesses, to
say that under the conditions offered, aside from a preference of 0
over 1 to end the numbers selected, digits representing odd numbers
are conspicuously preferred to those representing even numbers. How
far this will hold under other conditions can not now be stated, but
the facts here observed are of such a nature as to suggest the
possibility of an habitual tendency in this direction. However,
further investigations can alone determine whether or not this bias
for certain numbers is potent in a general way.
The curve on the next page, exhibiting the results noted above, shows
at a glance the marked and persistent preference for the odd numbers.
It will be noticed that of the digits preferred, 7 surpasses any of
the others. Not only, then, do we tend to select an odd number for
units' place when the guess ranges between one and a thousand, but of
these digits 7 is much preferred. In connection with this fact one
immediately recalls all he has heard about 7 as a sacred number, and
its professed significance in the so-called "occult sciences." I think
one is warranted in saying from an introspective point of view that
there is a shadow of superstition present in all attempts at pure
guessing. There appears to be some unexpressed feeling of lucky
numbers or some mental easement when one unreasoned position is taken
rather than any other.
[Illustration: CHOICE OF DIGITS IN TENS' AND UNITS' PLACES (MEN AND
WOMEN).
Vertical distance shows the number of times the figure on the
horizontal line immediately below was used.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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