Lysann Damisch

Lysann Damisch

Lysann Damisch is a researcher and first author of the 2010 Psychological Science paper reporting four experiments on superstition and performance.

Who they are

Damisch wrote the paper with Barbara Stoberock and Thomas Mussweiler. In four experiments, activating a good-luck superstition through a saying, an action or a lucky charm was followed by better performance on golf, motor dexterity, memory and anagram tasks. Three experiments pointed to higher perceived self-efficacy as the route.

The article on lucky charms sets the paper beside two larger replications from 2014.

Key papers

Damisch, L., Stoberock, B. and Mussweiler, T. (2010), Psychological Science 21(7).

Key ideas

A good-luck superstition was followed by better performance.

Perceived self-efficacy was proposed as the route.

Sources

  1. Damisch, L., Stoberock, B. and Mussweiler, T. (2010), Psychological Science 21(7), 1014-1020.