1.3m Britons dread Friday 13

More than 1.3 million people in Britain are so scared of today's date - Friday the 13th - that they will refuse to leave the house.

But, say scientists who carried out a new study on attitudes to luck, their fears are unfounded.

"There's no basis for this at all," said Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, which carried out the research.

"We studied hundreds of people who claimed to be either lucky or unlucky, and we found no correlation to random events like winning the Lottery.

"What we did find is that people tend to decide they are unlucky and then take a negative view on everything.

"For instance, if they have a small car crash, some will say they're unlucky. Others claim to be lucky because they escaped a major crash."

Professor Wiseman added: "It's been proven there are more car crashes on the 13th, but that's easily explained. People are so superstitious they stay off the roads. This alters traffic patterns and leads to more accidents.

"I'd recommend people treat today like any other. There's absolutely no way anything untoward will happen just because of the date."