UNDER A LADDER!
(Investigator 11, 1990 March)
Walking under a ladder is supposed to be
unlucky.
The photo [here omitted] shows a courageous
skeptic free of the superstitious fear of going under a ladder. A year
after this picture was taken he was still alive and unable to point to
any bad consequences of his experience.
A scientific test would be to:
1. Get a large number (say 1,000) of volunteers.
2. Randomly divide the volunteers into two
groups.
3. Get all the individuals of one group
to walk, one at a time, under a ladder.
4.Get all persons of the other group to
walk one at a time under something else — a bridge or a tree.
5.For both groups keep a careful record
of casualties.
6.Use a statistical test (for example the
Chi-square test) to calculate if the casualty rate of the two groups differed
significantly.
7.In case the bad luck influence of ladders
has a delayed effect the two groups should be reassessed for casualty rates
at regular (perhaps yearly) intervals.