They confused their mother’s image with their actual mothers. In one experiment testing this idea, people refused to throw a dart at a picture of their own mother’s face but were able to take dead aim at a photo of Hitler. According to the principle known as the “law of similarity,” we equate a symbol with the thing it stands for. We imbue these symbols with the ability to affect actual events in our lives. Humans have a remarkable tendency to impute meaning not only to objects but to abstract entities. The fact of the matter is that the objects are just objects, and despite their connection with special people in our lives, they have no inherent ability to transmit those people’s powers to us. After the death of a loved one, people often find it extremely difficult to get rid of all of the person's possessions, keeping a special scrapbook, dresser drawer, or keepsake chest filled with the most significant of these. Perhaps it’s not even something from a famous person, but from someone close to you who has died. The greatness that’s rubbed off onto this memento gives you a sense of connection with your hero and makes you that much more special. Perhaps you’ve got a baseball signed by your favorite player or a pen that a rock star used to autograph your concert ticket.
What’s your memorabilia collection like these days? According to this first rule, we attribute special properties to items that belong or once belonged to someone we love, is famous, or has a particular quality we admire.
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