GUESSING AND NUMBER PREFERENCES. 



783 



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 



2,200 



2,000 



1,800 



1,600 



1,400 



1,200 



1,000 



800 



01 23456789 



CnoicE or 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. 



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. 



It is impossible on the evidence furnished by this study to give 

 more than hints at the probable reason for the preference here indi- 

 cated. But it is worth while to glance backward to earlier condi- 

 tions, when the scientific attitude toward all the facts of life and mind 

 was far more subordinated to supernatural interpretations than it 

 is to-day. In this way we may catch a thread which still binds us 

 to habits formed in the indefinite past. 



The Greeks considered the even numbers as representative of the 

 feminine principle, and as belonging and applying to things terres- 

 trial. To them the odd numbers were endowed with a masculine 

 virtue, which in time was strengthened into supernatural and celestial 

 qualities. The same belief was prevalent among the Chinese. With 



