[ExI] psi yet again.

[Damien Broderick]

On 6/29/2010 1:14 PM, I wrote:

> If by preference you are inclined to choose a given number, and by
> random chance it is going to win, your psychic perception of this future
> fact can't provide extra help.

That was less clear than it should have been. Instead of "inclined" I 
should have written "determined"; if you are only *inclined*, then a psi 
hint favoring this number could provide extra help. But close study of 
lotto results, in the aggregate and by looking at a large sample of 
actual coupons (some 20 years ago in Australia) showed that (a) very 
many people superstitiously prefer numbers in the range 1-31, birthdays, 
(b) many people used simple geometric patterns such as X or +, and (c) 
numbers on the outer edges of the form were less favored. I don't know 
if (b) and (c) apply any longer, maybe punters just choose numbers with 
no form to mark. But if there's a physical form, many guesses are 
constrained by these (b) and (c) preference factors. And they seem to be 
hard to budge.

Damien Broderick