Dying in Threes
Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.
I’ve always heard that people die in threes. I don’t know if this only applies to Famous Celebrities but I remember when my father died it was about the time Lady Diana and Mother Teresa died.
How and why did this strange legend come about? This is what I’ve found online:
Of course, I recognize the superstition you’re referring to. But when you try to pin it down by asking what is meant by “celebrities” and “threes”—poof! All the meaning disappears.
And clearly, celebrities of any stripe do not all keel over in trios. It’s ridiculous.
In short, there is no basis for it whatsoever, beyond a misunderstanding of statistics and a slew of other mental errors.
In cultural terms, I can’t trace any origin to the superstition. It’s tempting to toss out some watermark like “The Day the Music Died,” when 1950s rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson died together in a plane crash.
But it’s much older and even less rational than that—as old as misunderstanding statistics. There is similar talk of deaths within families coming in threes, or bad incidents in general coming in threes. The number three has longstanding significance in magical thinking (it’s just big enough a number in a sequence to stop looking like a coincidence, even if it is).
It must be noted that the vast majority of people who quote the superstition do so relatively tongue-in-cheek for an extremely mild thrill or conversation-starter. That doesn’t make the thinking any less sloppy, of course.
And, inevitably, there are those who take it seriously. One apparent near-true believer who blogged away on the subject up through 1999 gives a good case study in the mental screwiness involved.
What do u think?
June 26, 2009 1:59 pm 
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