[finnh]

I think there is a more functional and charitable read of this: not all of our senses are plumbed all the way through to our conscious mind at all times. small little hints (like minor changes in smell, relative humidity, maybe just pattern-matching on the lay of the land) are down in the noise, and pulling out your trusty sticks gives your subconscious a way to send a signal to your awareness.

Kinda like acupuncture - does my pulse really have seven levels that mean different things? I doubt it.. but a successful acupuncturist might still be able to diagnose "what hurts" using said technique, when really they've already picked up on other clues from your gait, posture, etc.

"subliminal" and "subconscious" are over-used and vague words, but we've all had the experience of wearing a new clothing item and receiving an uncommon number of compliments, including from strangers who wouldn't know it's new. I've always assumed we are unconsciously presenting the new thing with a bit of flair, and that equally-unconsciously draws the eye.

[stickfigure]

This is far too charitable. The first question we should ask is "does it actually work?" and the answer is NO.

The wikipedia page lists quite a few scientific studies that establish this. The net summary is:

The scientific evidence shows that dowsing is no more effective than random chance. It is therefore regarded as a pseudoscience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

[the_fury]

You have to be careful of what you mean by "does it actually work".

Does the dowsing find water hidden in a random spot or is the dowser tapping into subconscious knowledge about the land to find it. The parent is talking about the latter.

Look up "Ideomotor phenomenon" in your source. It's right above the pseudoscience bit.

[eesmith]

It's not like subconscious knowledge must be valid subconscious knowledge. The ideomotor phenomenon is an expression of internal belief, which may be little different than a wild-ass guess.

There's no evidence that the dowser is tapping into subconscious knowledge in a way that gives results any better than - or different from - chance.

[darkerside]

Eye tracking probably plays a big role. We are hardwired to notice what other people are looking at.

Also, you bought it because it looked good, didn't you?

[finnh]

The eye tracking explanation is a good one, thanks. I think it supports my hypothesis by providing a possible mechanism of action.

To your second point: yes, of course. But three weeks later it looks (mostly) the same but stops drawing compliments.