Baskerville effect

noun

Baskerville effect

noun

Etymology Named after the Baskerville family from Arthur Conan Doyle's crime novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

1

Uncommon The alleged self-fulfilling prophecy that there is an increase in rate of mortality through heart attacks on days considered unlucky because of the psychological stress this causes on superstitious people.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.