You’ve seen it. You’re in a high-rise in Chicago or New York, riding the elevator, watching the numbers climb. 10, 11, 12... 14. Wait. Where did 13 go? It’s not a glitch. It’s a multi-million dollar architectural decision based on the fact that for many people, 13 fear is real. We call it triskaidekaphobia. It sounds like a word made up for a spelling bee, but the psychological and economic weight it carries is heavy.
Why are we like this?
📖 Related: John and Nicks Clive: Why This Old-School Steakhouse Still Wins
It’s easy to dismiss it as old-school superstition, something your great-grandmother worried about while throwing salt over her shoulder. But in 2026, the data shows we haven't outgrown it. We just got better at hiding it behind corporate policies and "omitted" floor numbers.
The deep roots of why 13 fear is real
History is messy. Most experts, like those at the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina, point to a few specific cultural collisions that cemented the number 13 as a harbinger of doom.
Take the Last Supper. 13 people at the table. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, is traditionally identified as the 13th guest. That’s a heavy narrative to carry for two millennia. Then you’ve got Norse mythology. There’s a famous story about a dinner party in Valhalla. 12 gods were enjoying themselves until Loki, the trickster, crashed the party. He was the 13th. Chaos followed, Balder died, and the world got a little darker.
It's about the disruption of "perfect" numbers.
Think about it. 12 is clean. There are 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 hours on a clock, and 12 tribes of Israel. 12 feels complete. 12 is a circle. When you add one more, you break the symmetry. You create an outlier. For the human brain, which craves patterns and predictability, 13 is the jagged edge.
The actual cost of a superstition
Let’s talk money. Because honestly, if this was just a "spooky feeling," airlines wouldn't care. But they do.
If you look at the seating charts for Ryanair, Air France, or United Airlines, you’ll often notice something weird. Row 12 is followed immediately by row 14. Why? Because the "13 fear is real" for a significant portion of the traveling public. If a nervous flyer sees "13" on their boarding pass, their cortisol levels spike before they even hit the tarmac.
🔗 Read more: Why America's Ideal Woman Got Jacked and What It Says About Us
The late Thomas Fernsler, a researcher at the University of Delaware, spent years looking into this. He noted that the US economy loses hundreds of millions of dollars every Friday the 13th. People don’t want to sign contracts. They don't buy houses. They postpone weddings. They don't travel. This isn't just about ghosts; it's about consumer behavior driving market fluctuations.
Even Otis Elevators estimates that up to 85% of high-rise buildings they service don’t have a labeled 13th floor. It’s "12A" or just "14." Building owners know that some tenants—especially in commercial real estate—simply won't sign a lease for a space on the 13th floor. It’s a liability.
Psychological echoes and the power of suggestion
Is it a phobia or a cultural habit?
Psychologists often categorize triskaidekaphobia as a specific phobia, but it functions more like a collective cultural anxiety. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe something bad will happen, you become hyper-vigilant. You’re more likely to notice a stumble or a spilled coffee, and you immediately blame the date or the floor number.
Magical thinking is hard to kill.
We live in an era of AI and quantum computing, yet we still avoid walking under ladders. It's a "just in case" mentality. Even people who claim to be purely rational often find themselves hesitating before booking a surgery on the 13th of the month. Dr. Donald Dossey, who actually coined the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia" (fear of Friday the 13th), argued that once a label is attached to a fear, it gains a sort of legitimacy in the mind.
It’s not universal (which makes it weirder)
The funniest part? This isn't a global human truth. It’s a Western obsession.
- In Italy, 17 is the "unlucky" number because when written in Roman numerals (XVII), it can be rearranged to spell "VIXI," which means "I have lived" (implying "my life is over").
- In China, 4 is the big one. The word for four sounds like the word for death. You’ll find buildings there skipping the 4th, 14th, and 24th floors.
- 13 is actually considered lucky in some cultures, associated with the lunar cycles and femininity.
This proves that 13 fear is real because we made it real. It’s a software bug in our cultural operating system.
Apollo 13: When the fear got a mascot
You can't talk about this without mentioning NASA.
📖 Related: Why Bahama Breeze in Schaumburg Illinois is Still the Best Escape Near Woodfield Mall
Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on April 11, 1970. It was scheduled to enter the lunar orbit on April 13. Then, the oxygen tank exploded. While the crew famously survived, the mission became the ultimate "told you so" for triskaidekaphobes everywhere. NASA, a bastion of engineering and logic, was suddenly the face of a superstitious omen.
Of course, the explosion was due to a faulty thermostatic switch and a series of technical oversights. But to the public? It was the number.
Real-world ways to manage the anxiety
If you find that the number 13 actually makes you break out in a sweat, you aren't crazy. You're just reacting to a very old, very loud cultural narrative.
Exposure therapy is usually the gold standard here.
- Start small. Purposely choose the 13th item on a menu.
- Track your luck. Write down every time something good happens on the 13th of the month. You’ll find the distribution of "good" and "bad" days is almost perfectly even regardless of the date.
- Change the narrative. Some people "reclaim" the number. In certain gaming communities or sports circles, 13 is worn as a badge of defiance.
Taking Action: Breaking the Cycle
If you’re a business owner or a manager, acknowledging that 13 fear is real for some of your clients can actually be a smart move. You don't have to believe in it to respect that others do.
For personal growth, the goal is to move from "superstition" to "observation."
- Check your bias. Next time you have a bad day on the 13th, ask yourself: "Would I even remember the date if this happened on the 12th?"
- Research the 'why'. Understanding that this fear is mostly based on a Norse dinner party and a seating arrangement from 2,000 years ago makes it feel a lot less powerful.
- Observe the physical reality. Go to a building that does have a 13th floor. Stand in the hallway. Notice how the walls don't crumble.
The number 13 is just a prime number. It’s the number of cards in a suit. It’s a baker’s dozen. It only has the power you—or the person selling you a condo—decides to give it. By recognizing the pattern, you can start to step out of the shadow of the superstition.