We cannot help but react to numbers, but why are odds
masculine and evens feminine? Why were Levi's 501s and WD-40 given those names?
And is number 3 really 'warm' and 'friendly'? Why is number 13 considered unlucky? Why is 7 such a lucky charm?
The earliest words
and symbols used for numbers date from about 5,000 years ago in Sumer, a region
in what is now Iraq. The Sumerians did not look far when coming up with names.
The word for one, ges, also meant man, or erect phallus. The word for two, min, also meant
woman, symbolic of the male being primary and the woman his complement, or
perhaps describing a penis and a pair of breasts.
Initially, numbers
served a practical purpose, such as counting sheep and calculating taxes.
Yet they also revealed abstract patterns, which made them objects of
contemplation. Perhaps the earliest mathematical discovery was that numbers
come in two types: even – those that can be halved cleanly, such as 2, 4 and 6 –
and odd – those that cannot, such as 1, 3 and 5. Pythagoras, who lived in
the sixth century BC, echoed the Sumerian association of one with man and two with
woman by proclaiming odd numbers masculine and even numbers feminine. Resistance to
splitting in two, he argued, embodied strength, while susceptibility to
splitting in two was a weakness. He gave a further arithmetical
justification: odd was master over even, just as man is master over woman,
because when you add an odd number to an even number, the answer remains
odd.
Pythagoras is most
famous for his theorem about triangles, but his belief about number gender has
dominated western thought for more than 2,000 years. Christianity embraced it
within its creation myth: God created Adam first and Eve second. One signifies
unity, and two is the "sin which deviates from the First Good". For the medieval
church, odd numbers were stronger, better, more godly and luckier than even,
and by Shakespeare's time, metaphysical beliefs about odd numbers were common:
"They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance or
death," Falstaff declares in The Merry Wives of
Windsor. These superstitions remain. Mystical numbers
still tend to be odd, notably the "magic" three, the
"lucky" seven and the "unlucky" 13.
It is human nature
to be sensitive to numerical patterns. These patterns provoke subjective
responses, sometimes extreme ones but also more generally, leading to deeply
held cultural associations.
Culture, language
and psychology play a role in the way we understand mathematical patterns;
numbers have a fixed mathematical meaning – they are abstract entities
signifying quantity and order – yet they also tell other stories. The influential
German theologian Hugh of Saint Victor (1096–1141) provided an early guide to
numbers: 10 represents "rectitude in faith", nine, coming before 10,
"defect among perfection", and 11, coming afterwards,
"transgression outside of measure".
In modern times the number 11, for
example, is an essential element of KFC's corporate mythology: its signature
dish is fried chicken seasoned with Colonel Sanders's secret original recipe of
11 herbs and spices. "This is the key mystical use of the number 11 in
commercial culture," says Greg. The number represents transgression, he
adds, in this case an extra ingredient, one beyond the ordinary. "Eleven
has just gone that one past 10. It has recognised that there is an order to
things, and now it is exploring the distance beyond. Eleven is opening the door
to the infinite, but it's not going too far. It is … rebellion at its most
finite." I ask if Colonel Sanders was therefore no different from the
rocker in Spinal Tapwhose amp went up
to 11 so it could be louder than amps labelled to 10. Greg laughs:
"Yes! But I actually believe it. I believe that 11 is more
interesting than 10."
The Spinal Tap-style
extra 1 is a common meme. A classic example is Levi's 501 jeans.
"This raises the expectation but doesn't overplay it. It's that extra
little bit, and that is what Levi's is always doing, or in its glory
days always did: adding an extra little button here or a new piece of sewing
there. And it works well with the big decimals: the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 101
drum machine, Room 101. It wasn't Room 100 – who'd be scared of
that?"
The significance
of the extra 1 is an established part of Indian culture.Shagun is the custom of giving a round sum of
money as a gift, with one rupee added. Gift envelopes in wedding shops, for
example, come with a one rupee coin glued to them, so you don't forget it.
While there is no single explanation for the practice – some say the one
is a blessing, others that it represents the beginning of a new cycle – it is
accepted that the symbolic value of the extra one is as important as the
monetary value of the notes inside.
In business, as in
religion, a good number is fundamental. The number 10 – "rectitude in
faith" – strengthens faith in the anti‑acne cream Oxy 10: "Ten is about
balance, security, returning to the norm. It's the absolute decimal," says
Greg. "There is no argument with 10." I asked him if he thought
the all-purpose lubricant WD-40 would have been as successful if it had been
called WD-41. "WD-41 would not be reliable," he insisted. "WD-41
would have more stuff in it than you would want. WD-40 is not over-claiming. It is a
simple, humble enhancement." Academic research
corroborates this semiotic evaluation: for household products, divisible
numbers are more attractive to consumers than indivisible ones.
In 2011, Dan King of the National University of Singapore and Chris Janiszewski of the University of Florida demonstrated that an imaginary
brand of anti-dandruff shampoo was better liked when it was called Zinc 24 than
when it was called Zinc 31. The respondents preferred Zinc 24 so much that they
were willing to pay 10% more for it. King and Janiszewski argued that customers
prefer 24 because they are more familiar with the number from their schooldays,
when the lines 3 x 8 = 24 and 4 x 6 = 24 were drummed into them by rote.
By comparison, 31 is a prime number and does not appear in any school
multiplication table.
To reinforce their
hypothesis that processing fluency increases brand preference, King and
Janiszewski designed a follow-up experiment that subtly included a
multiplication sum in the advertisement for a numbered brand. When there was no tag line, the participants
preferred Solus 36 over Solus 37, as would be expected. But when the researchers
included the tag line, Solus 36 increased in popularity and Solus 37
became even less popular. King and Janiszewski argued that our familiarity with
6, 6 and 36, from the six times table sum 6 x 6 = 36, increases our fluency in
processing the numbers, just as the unfamiliarity of 6, 6 and 37, which are not
arithmetically related, decreases it. The pleasure rush that comes from
subconsciously recognising a simple multiplication makes us feel good, they said,
and we misattribute the buzz as satisfaction with the product. We are always
sensitive to whether a number is divisible or not, and this sensitivity
influences our behaviour.
Another response
to numbers is affection. More than
30,000 people took part in the first few weeks of testing. Here is an idea of
the words they used. Number one: independent, strong, honest, brave,
straightforward, pioneering, lonely. Two: cautious, wise, pretty, fragile,
open, sympathetic, quiet, clean, flexible. Three: dynamic, warm, friendly,
extrovert, opulent, soft, relaxed, pretentious. Four: laid-back, rogue, solid,
reliable, versatile, down-to-earth, personable. Five: balanced, central, cute,
fat, dominant but not too much so, happy. Six: upbeat, sexy, supple, soft,
strong, brave, genuine, courageous, humble. Seven: magical, unalterable,
intelligent, awkward, overconfident, masculine.
King and
Janiszewski conducted an experiment in which the participants indicated whether
they liked, disliked or felt neutral about every number from 1 to 100. The
results showed that our liking of numbers follows clear patterns. Most
striking, however, was the unpopularity of numbers ending in 1, 3, 7 and
9. The primes are significant features of our internal landscape of
numbers for the rest of us.
Our brains are always switched on to arithmetic.
Our brains are always switched on to arithmetic.
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