# Is It True That When People Die, It Always Happens In Sets Of Threes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911 "2012-03-15T23:35:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![indigoeradicator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f6c823/32.png) [@indigoeradicator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indigoeradicator)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/1 "2012-03-15T23:35:12Z")
I’ve always been told that when someone dies that you know, it won’t be soon after that two more people you know will die, also. People have always said that deaths “come in threes.” Is this true at all? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/2 "2012-03-15T23:35:28Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/3 "2012-03-15T23:46:03Z")
I guess to really disprove this, you need to be more specific. What is “soon after”? Everyone you know will die at some point, so it’d be fairly simple to just wait for three people you know to die and call it a day. More to the point though, what **beowulff** said is the correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/4 "2012-03-16T00:09:17Z")
You might want to read about [Confirmation Bias](http://www.skepdic.com/confirmbias.html). ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/5 "2012-03-16T00:19:33Z")
What people have said this? Nobody I’ve ever met. I’ve never heard this saying before, and it certainly has not borne out in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/6 "2012-03-16T00:34:21Z")
> [@indigoeradicator](#): > > I’ve always been told that when someone dies that you know, it won’t be soon after that two more people you know will die, also. People have always said that deaths “come in threes.” Is this true at all? Dude, death is random. It doesn’t have patterns. > [@rachelellogram](#): > > What people have said this? Nobody I’ve ever met. I’ve never heard this saying before, and it certainly has not borne out in my life. I have heard the idea of “celebrities die in threes”. We even talk about it sometimes over in the Death Pool thread. It’s just a casual observation. When two celebs die near each other, we wait for the third. It’s just something people say. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/7 "2012-03-16T00:51:38Z")
If you count in sets of three, everything happens in threes. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/8 "2012-03-16T00:54:14Z")
I’ve heard it before, and always wondered how stupid a person has to be, to believe such a thing. But why not, there are even stupider things people believe. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/9 "2012-03-16T00:59:42Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > If you count in sets of three, everything happens in threes. If you group them differently, NOTHING happens in threes. It all depends on what you want to prove. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/10 "2012-03-16T01:14:08Z")
Actually, the initial death is followed by several billion deaths in a row, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/11 "2012-03-16T01:17:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Actually, the initial death is followed by several billion deaths in a row, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. Except that the OP is talking about “people you know”. I don’t know billions of people. The OP should also define the terms “people you know” and “soon after”. ---
**Author:** ![Simmerdown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simmerdown/32/14859_2.png) [@Simmerdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simmerdown)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/12 "2012-03-16T01:39:11Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Dude, death is random. It doesn’t have patterns. Tell that to the folks over in Syria. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/13 "2012-03-16T02:07:07Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > What people have said this? Nobody I’ve ever met. I’ve never heard this saying before, and it certainly has not borne out in my life. I’ve heard it said quite a lot - enough that I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it. Anyway, it’s confirmation bias. Your Grandmother dies. Your great-Aunt dies within a month - not so surprising if they’re of an age. Then your high-school best friend dies the next month. An unexpected death, but it wouldn’t be grouped with the other deaths had it happened a year earlier. Subsequent deaths in a short time-span then just get grouped into the category of ‘too many deaths’ because you stop counting. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/14 "2012-03-16T02:47:39Z")
There are lots of “comes in threes” fables. One I hear is simply “bad news comes in threes”, I have even heard it said about big waves at sea. I have a suspicion that **SciFiSam** touches on the right answer. People count up to about three, then it becomes “lots”. So we notice threes, and have an inherent bias towards counting things in threes, which gets us to **pravnik** ’s point. Then conformation bias does the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/15 "2012-03-16T02:49:43Z")
Essentially it’s like in the _Final Destination_ series of documentaries. This is why the three deaths also must be quite cartoonish and improbable. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/16 "2012-03-16T02:57:54Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > If you group them differently, NOTHING happens in threes. Oh, they still _happen_ in threes, all right; you just don’t notice because you’re not counting them that way. If you were, though, there you are, threes all over the place! ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/17 "2012-03-16T03:19:37Z")
There is something about three in humans. We love the form x,x,X. We tell jokes in three parts, speeches and written prose uses threes for emphasis, and the same form is a common musical device - especially in improvisation. The previous sentence is also an example of the form. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/18 "2012-03-16T08:01:34Z")
Actually it happens 4 - 2 - 5 - 1, repeat. It just looks like 3s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/19 "2012-03-16T08:18:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Actually, the initial death is followed by several billion deaths in a row, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it. 999,999,999 is nearly a billion, and _ **it’s a multiple of THREE!** _ - Coincidence? I think NOT! ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2012, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911/20 "2012-03-16T08:38:18Z")
What are the chances of rock 'n roll pioneers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper all dying within seconds of each other? eh? eh? explain that if you can! Three famous musicians…come on people, we are through the looking glass here. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-true-that-when-people-die-it-always-happens-in-sets-of-threes/615911.md?page=2)