“They’re no longer extra worried about getting into a car accident. If they knock down on the table, that bad feeling goes away,” said Risen. “There’s very little cost to knocking, and it does seem to affect people’s beliefs about things.” “Like the knocking of wood or throwing a ball in the previous examples, washing your hands is “a way of distancing yourself, a way of separating yourself from previous events”” Basically small things that make us feel better make us feel better and improve our outlook on things