TBF post-purchase surveys: Cursed vs Overlooked
A blinded comparison of the two cohorts' post-purchase survey answers found no significant psychographic differences between them.
The answer
No. The two cohorts read as the same population.
Both are dominated by money problems. That is roughly 65–75% of each cohort once you harmonize how the themes were split. Physical health comes next, at similar rates in both.
Desires are the same: security, not luxury. Debt-free. A paid-off house. Breathing room. Fears are the same. Voice is the same. Locus of control is the same: external, built on luck, blessings, and fate, paired with a thwarted hard-worker identity. Religiosity sits at about 15% in both. Every one of these is statistically indistinguishable.
There is one candidate difference. Emotional suffering and grief are about twice as salient in the Cursed cohort: 26.5% versus roughly 12.7%. The nominal p-value is 0.03. But about 12 themes were tested, so it does not survive multiple-comparison correction. The Bonferroni threshold is about 0.004.
Treat it as a lean, not a finding. It is also partly a coding-breadth artifact.
Overlooked started at 120 raw responses; 2 duplicates were dropped, leaving 118.
How bias was kept out
There is no prompt confound. The two survey pages ask the byte-identical question: "What is the single biggest problem in your life that you would most want the Tibetan Bracelet of Fortune to help you with?"
Responses were exported from Supabase: surveys.survey_tbf_csd_av_responses and surveys.survey_tbf_overlooked_responses. They were shuffled. Product names were redacted. Cohorts were renamed by coin flip to "Cohort A" (Cursed) and "Cohort B" (Overlooked).
The blinded set went to a sandboxed analyst model. It was given no product, avatar, or marketing context. It open-coded themes bottom-up.
Its quote fragments were then programmatically verified verbatim against the source: 179 checked, 2 fixed. Every theme count was recounted.
A separate mechanical word-frequency layer ran with no model judgment at all: log-odds of a word appearing in a response, cohort versus cohort.
Is the one gap real? The significance tests
Two-proportion z-tests were run on the largest harmonized gaps.
Emotional suffering: 13/49 versus 15/118. z = 2.18, p = 0.030, uncorrected. Physical health: 19/49 versus 34/118. z = 1.26, p = 0.21. Combined finance: 36/49 versus ~76/118. z = 1.13, p = 0.26.
With n = 49 versus 118, gaps under about 10 points are noise. Only the emotional-suffering gap clears that bar. And it fails correction: the Bonferroni threshold is about 0.004 across roughly 12 themes.
| Test | Cursed vs Overlooked | z | p |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emotional suffering | 13/49 vs 15/118 | 2.18 | 0.030 (uncorrected) |
| Physical health | 19/49 vs 34/118 | 1.26 | 0.21 |
| Combined finance | 36/49 vs ~76/118 | 1.13 | 0.26 |
The word-count layer (no model judgment)
No single word separates the cohorts strongly. All |z| < 2.5.
The mild leans: Cursed over-uses "stress" (10% vs 1%), "problem", and "mother". Overlooked over-uses "financially" (11% vs 2%), "retire", "children", "son", "home", and "husband".
Response length and first-person usage are near-identical. Median length is 78 versus 95 characters. "I" appears in 47% versus 48% of responses.
| Word | Cursed count | Cursed % | Overlooked count | Overlooked % | z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stress | 5 | 10% | 1 | 1% | +2.46 |
| problem | 5 | 10% | 3 | 3% | +2.06 |
| mother | 5 | 10% | 4 | 3% | +1.80 |
| love | 4 | 8% | 5 | 4% | +1.12 |
| emotional | 3 | 6% | 4 | 3% | +0.91 |
| financially | 1 | 2% | 13 | 11% | −1.65 |
| enough | 0 | 0% | 8 | 7% | −1.40 |
| retire | 0 | 0% | 6 | 5% | −1.19 |
| son | 0 | 0% | 6 | 5% | −1.19 |
| children | 1 | 2% | 9 | 8% | −1.17 |
| home | 1 | 2% | 6 | 5% | −0.69 |
| pain | 1 | 2% | 6 | 5% | −0.69 |
| husband | 3 | 6% | 11 | 9% | −0.58 |
Blind qualitative analysis: Cohort A (Cursed), n=49, vs Cohort B (Overlooked), n=118
Both cohorts bought the same product and answered the identical question: "What is the single biggest problem in your life that you would most want [PRODUCT] to help you with?" (hint: finances, relationships, or physical/emotional/spiritual health). Each cohort was open-coded independently, bottom-up, with no predefined theme list. A response may touch multiple themes, so percentages sum to more than 100%. Every count is auditable via the response-ID lists under each table. No assumptions were made about how the cohorts were formed.
Method note: initial coding was drafted by a delegated model (kimi-k3; grok-4.6 was unavailable) and then audited line-by-line against the source responses — list lengths recounted, ~40 quotes verified verbatim. Corrections found in audit are listed in "Audit corrections" and applied in the comparison.
Part 1 — Cohort A (Cursed), n=49: themes
| Theme | Definition | Count | % of A | Verbatim fragments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial hardship, debt & money scarcity | Insufficient income, overwhelming debt, inability to save, money "disappearing," desire for stability or abundance | 36 | 73.5% | "I'm in debt for a lot of money I cannot pay back" (A42); "I make money but I can't seem to save. It's always something" (A2); "don't have money for food" (A29) |
| Physical health & illness (self or loved one) | Chronic disease, injury, surgery costs, a family member's serious illness, desire for strength/independence | 19 | 38.8% | "my husband has to go through another 36 week treatment with radioactive isotopes" (A1); "I have a rare autoimmune disease that has good a lot of hospitalizations" (A34); "My health~ lung issues" (A47) |
| Emotional & mental suffering (stress, grief, loneliness, overwhelm) | Present-tense psychological pain: depression, grief, irritability, mental clutter, longing for peace | 13 | 26.5% | "I AM SAD AND LONELY. JUST SHARING THIS WITH YOU, MY EYES ARE FULL OF TEARS" (A29); "my only sibling passed away in June destroying my emotional and mental health" (A42); "I am losing all hope but still trying day by day" (A17) |
| Romantic love & partnership | Seeking love, doubt about a partner's commitment, marital strain, fear of vulnerability | 8 | 16.3% | "Finding love that is true, forever, honest, genuine and trustworthy" (A23); "I think my boyfriend is lying to me that he will marry me" (A29); "a woman that im scared to tell how much she means to me" (A46) |
| Family relationships: conflict, accusation, estrangement & repair | Broken family bonds, accusations, rejection by children, family "drama," plus wishes to strengthen family ties | 8 | 16.3% | "My family is broken and with has happened, I don't think it can be mended" (A1); "Family accusing me of taking money from my mother. It's not true ofcourse" (A14); "My adult children no longer like being around me" (A35) |
| Spiritual health, protection & energetic concerns | Spiritual growth, prayer, releasing negative energy/bad luck, blessing others, third-eye opening | 8 | 16.3% | "I have been told I have a dark cloud hovering over me everywhere I go in life" (A13); "Protect my spiritual health so that I may keep blessing others" (A26); "Open up my third eye 👁️" (A49) |
| Caregiving burden for ill or elderly family | Hands-on care for sick/dying relatives, unaided, with financial and emotional toll | 5 | 10.2% | "caring for her for the past 6 years, she has dementia... Only I was the one taking care of her" (A37); "my patience being tested daily when it comes to being a caregiver for my mother who is 95 years old" (A22) |
| Employment & career instability | Job hunting, age discrimination, hostile supervisor, inconsistent ability to work | 5 | 10.2% | "at my age, no one wants to hire someone close to retirement age" (A17); "My supervisor is giving ne a real hard time about my job" (A42) |
| Housing & property burdens | Buying a home, losing a home, clearing/repairing properties, mortgage arrears | 4 | 8.2% | "ended losing homeowners" (A41); "I want changes in what we make so I can buy a house of our own" (A38); "Clearing out and fixing my mother's house... clearing out storage" (A31) |
| Life purpose & service to others | Problem framed as needing resources to fulfill a mission or help others | 2 | 4.1% | "Need a lot money to open a sanctuary for strays cats... to comply my life mission" (A48); "so that I may keep blessing others" (A26) |
| No problem stated | Declined to identify a problem | 1 | 2.0% | "I don't think I have" (A12) |
Auditable response-ID lists (Cohort A)
- Financial hardship (36): A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A8, A9, A10, A11, A13, A15, A16, A17, A18, A19, A20, A21, A22, A24, A27, A29, A31, A32, A33, A34, A36, A38, A39, A40, A41, A42, A43, A44, A45, A48, A49
- Physical health & illness (19): A1, A7, A8, A9, A11, A20, A21, A22, A25, A28, A33, A34, A36, A43, A44, A45, A47, A48, A49
- Emotional & mental suffering (13): A5, A8, A10, A11, A14, A17, A22, A29, A30, A31, A42, A44, A45
- Romantic love & partnership (8): A8, A10, A23, A29, A32, A42, A46, A49
- Family relationships (8): A1, A11, A14, A17, A33, A35, A37, A44
- Spiritual health & protection (8): A13, A26, A31, A33, A36, A42, A44, A49
- Caregiving burden (5): A1, A7, A22, A31, A37
- Employment & career instability (5): A6, A17, A20, A34, A42
- Housing & property burdens (4): A21, A31, A38, A41
- Life purpose & service (2): A26, A48
- No problem stated (1): A12
Cohort A — Psychographics: Desires / dreams
- "Breathing room," not riches, is the modal aspiration. Most financial desires are framed as relief rather than luxury: "I would just like some financial breathing room" (A5); "I want to stop living paycheck to paycheck" (A27); "Increase in income to make payments easier" (A24).
- Homeownership recurs as the concrete dream: "put down payment on a house" (A21); "buy a house of our own" (A38).
- A subset frames desire in expansive, abundance/manifestation language: "I am manifesting an Abundance of wealth in my life... I am open to receiving an abundance of wealth love and fortune for the remainder of my lifetime!" (A13); "Financial Abundance" (A49).
- Relational desires are idealistic and absolute: "Finding love that is true, forever, honest, genuine and trustworthy" (A23); "im still not sure if she is my forever" (A8).
- Inner peace is itself a stated dream: "Tranquility, peace and patience" (A30); "I need peace in my life" (A14); "to free me for prayer and devotion" (A31).
- Service-oriented desires exist: "open a sanctuary for strays cats... my life mission" (A48); "keep blessing others" (A26).
Pains (present suffering)
- Compounded, cascading hardship is the signature pattern — bereavement, deportation, job loss, and debt stack within single responses: "After losing my mum last year and my husband being arrested then deported, I was very depressed... 7 months behind in my mortgage" (A17).
- Raw, unfiltered grief and loneliness: "My husband recently died ..money is really tight" (A5); "MY EYES ARE FULL OF TEARS" (A29); "my only sibling passed away in June destroying my emotional and mental health" (A42).
- Chronic bodily suffering: "my Asthma, diabetes and pain on my legs to feets" (A8); "trying to get him to a better physical state in life since 2009" (A1).
- Unjust accusation while caregiving is a distinct wound: "Accusations of me taking my mother's money after caring for her for the past 6 years... I can't deal with this anymore" (A37); "the drama associated with it has been just aweful" (A14).
- Rejection by one's own children: "My adult children no longer like being around me" (A35); "a daughter that does not help me out with my mother" (A22).
Fears (anticipated loss)
- Cascading loss — job then relationship: "If I lose my job I'm afraid I'll lose my relationship as well that is already on shaky ground" (A42).
- Romantic betrayal/deception: "I think my boyfriend is lying to me that he will marry me" (A29); vulnerability/rejection in love: "a woman that im scared to tell how much she means to me" (A46).
- Irreversibility and hopelessness: "I don't think it can be mended" (A1); "I am losing all hope" (A17).
- Anticipated misfortune framed metaphysically: "a dark cloud hovering over me everywhere I go... bad luck and misfortune" (A13); "I need protection for everything from all sides" (A42).
Personality / voice
- Tone: runs from clipped, telegraphic minimalism ("Financial issues is my number one" (A3); "Debt issues...needing help debt issues" (A16); "Wealth and health" (A48)) to long, unpunctuated emotional outpouring (A17, A22, A29, A37). Emotional register spans flat exhaustion ("Financial problems all the time" (A19)) to crisis-level capitalization and disclosure (A29).
- Agency & locus of control: split. One cluster shows high personal agency and proactive framing: "I am focusing on aligning my financial goals... I am actively managing my health and stress" (A45); "I am manifesting... I am open to receiving" (A13); "still trying day by day to get back in my feet" (A17). An opposing cluster expresses external locus of control — things happen to them: "no matter how hard I work, it seems that money is always an issue" (A4); "Once I have money, it is gone right away" (A22); money personified as escaping: "my money goes away immediately on my bank and hand" (A8).
- Self-blame vs external attribution: external attribution dominates — corrupt systems ("Expose the corruption on Maui and in Hawaii" (A20)), lenders and thieves ("victim of identity theft, and Car Sharks loan" (A41)), age discrimination (A17), a hostile supervisor (A42), unhelpful family (A22). Explicit self-blame is nearly absent; the closest is acknowledged personal limitation: "i can't control myself i get irritated easily" (A8); "time management is the issue" (A42, though framed against the supervisor).
- Religiosity / spirituality: a substantial minority speaks in devotional or metaphysical registers: "to free me for prayer and devotion" (A31); "Protect my spiritual health so that I may keep blessing others" (A26); "Open up my third eye 👁️" (A49); manifestation/abundance language (A13); "Finances is what I truly need to heal" (A18) — sacralizing even money problems.
- Specificity: bimodal. Many give vivid concrete detail — "36 week treatment with radioactive isotopes" (A1), "7 months behind in my mortgage" (A17), "mother who is 95 years old and suffers with dementia" (A22), "no one wants to give me a $1000 loan" (A17). Others stay at keyword level ("Financial and job hunting" (A6); "My health, because I am diabetic" (A25)).
- Petitionary posture: several respondents write to the survey/product as a confidant or rescuer: "Please pick me" (A14); "JUST SHARING THIS WITH YOU" (A29); repeated "Thank you" closings (A8, A42, A44).
Part 2 — Cohort B (Overlooked), n=118: themes
| Theme | Definition | Count | % of B | Verbatim fragments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial stability, freedom & abundance aspiration | Desire for stability, prosperity, "financial freedom," or more money without acute-crisis language; includes generic "finances" mentions | 42 | 35.6% | "Help creating more abundance." (B27); "Financial freedom to get the dog of my dreams without fear of vet bills" (B106); "My finances to be financially free and to able to retire and travel!" (B54) |
| Debt, bills & day-to-day money survival | Cannot cover current bills/debts/basic needs; paycheck-to-paycheck; bankruptcy; "lost everything" | 32 | 27.1% | "I have to decide every month what gets paid and what bill is going to have to wait." (B71); "I filed bankruptcy. I don't have enough money ." (B12); "Money to buy groceries" (B112) |
| Physical health: chronic pain, illness & aging | Own or family member's illness, chronic pain, diabetes, cancer, weight, declining health with age | 34 | 28.8% | "I broke my femur one year and half ago and I am still in excruciating pain." (B68); "Pain through out my body to stop." (B91); "Staying healthy & already 78" (B8) |
| Housing: mortgage, ownership & repairs | Paying off mortgage, buying a first home, home repairs, escaping inadequate housing | 15 | 12.7% | "All of us is still renting for almost 20 years" (B11); "not being able to get a loan to fix my roof that is leaking" (B15); "repair my home after hurricane Laura damage" (B83) |
| Providing for & protecting family financially | Wanting money specifically to help children, parents, grandchildren, or others | 14 | 11.9% | "to be able to help my children financially in someway" (B47); "having money to help my family and others in need!" (B88); "my blind son could stay in the house he's always lived in" (B113) |
| Spirituality, faith & spiritual growth | Relationship with God, church, spiritual health, divine favor, protection, spiritual warfare | 14 | 11.9% | "My relationship with God" (B2); "I need favor and prosperity and protection for me and my children." (B66); "Open the path that has been closed by evil people that do witchcraft on me" (B80) |
| Marriage & romantic relationship strain | Problems with an existing partner: emotional distance, intimacy, addiction, gaslighting, decisions | 9 | 7.6% | "I feel gaslit by my husband" (B24); "My libido or has been nonexistent for quite some time… I don't know what's wrong with me." (B25); "to help my husband stop drinking alcohol" (B79) |
| Family relationships: estrangement, harmony & communication | Estrangement, wanting family to get along, children to call, family reunion, desire for a child | 9 | 7.6% | "I have not talked to my daughter in about 25 years. I would like to reunite with her." (B45); "my 2 adults children to communicate with me often" (B22); "I wish my kids could have both parents together all the time" (B81) |
| Emotional & mental health | Depression, sadness, stress, anxiety, emotional toll, fear of time running out | 9 | 7.6% | "Finances — resulting to feeling of sadness and depression" (B43); "giving me constant concern plus mental health issues" (B10); "Health and fear of running out of time" (B87) |
| Employment, job loss & career | Job loss, finding/keeping a job, job dissatisfaction, career training | 7 | 5.9% | "I have been laid off my job and I need to find another job." (B1); "I do not like my job, but I needed to pay my bills" (B118); "Find the perfect job that will financially support me and my family" (B7) |
| Retirement & fixed-income strain | Unable to retire, forced back to work, or stretching a fixed/government income | 7 | 5.9% | "I'm 73 years old and still have to work full time as an RN. I wish I could retire" (B53); "I cant retire because I still have a house payment… Im 76 and tired" (B28); "Now, I am old and poor. I need to go back to work" (B101) |
| Seeking love & companionship | Finding a romantic partner, soulmate, "Mr Right," keeping love coming | 7 | 5.9% | "To help me find my Mr Right… I've been widowed for 5 years" (B29); "I am just trying to find my soulmate" (B77); "I need my a romantic partner in my life." (B66) |
| Caregiving for ill/dependent family | Full-time or heavy care for disabled, ill, elderly, or dependent relatives | 7 | 5.9% | "My husband is a disabled combat veteran… led me to be his full time care provider." (B61); "Caring for myself & my 92 year old mother. We are both widowed." (B115); "Breast cancer and dealing with 2 Autistic Grandkids" (B38) |
| Grief, widowhood & bereavement | Death of a spouse (incl. suicide), widowhood, burial costs, mourning | 6 | 5.1% | "My husband passed away last year… there's not enough money to bury my mother" (B16); "I am a widow my husband died 6 months ago I am having a bad time with everything!" (B49); "my husband committed Suicide. I lost my home and all finances!" (B82) |
| Business & entrepreneurship | Getting clients/orders, launching or reviving a business, business failure fallout | 5 | 4.2% | "Getting orders from my small businesses." (B44); "I want my business to flourish with new clients." (B14); "a business that failed within 3 minths" (B37) |
| Legal disputes, scams & financial shocks | Lawsuits, being sued, estate disputes, refinancing scams | 4 | 3.4% | "I am being sued by friends who loaned me money" (B37); "my current lawsuit… from the car accident" (B59); "refinancing scam" (B109) |
| Self-development, purpose & grounding | Wanting confidence, focus, self-worth, to become "the best person I can be" | 3 | 2.5% | "I want to be grounded know where I stand my value I need to focus on me" (B58); "bring out the best person I can be" (B7); "Walking in confidence and knowledge of the divine." (B110) |
| Loneliness & lack of friendship | Explicit loneliness or absence of friends (non-romantic) | 2 | 1.7% | "Feeling lonely with no friends. I am loved and supported but no friends" (B94); "was sad about mistakes I made and lonesome" (B9) |
| Non-substantive / off-topic | Greetings, shipping questions, product anticipation; no codable problem | 3 | 2.5% | "I'm am greatly grateful to be apart of this server" (B13); "How long to get the [PRODUCT]s" (B56) |
Auditable response-ID lists (Cohort B)
- Financial stability/abundance (42): B2, B3, B5, B18, B21, B22, B23, B25, B26, B27, B31, B32, B35, B36, B39, B40, B41, B43, B54, B57, B60, B63, B66, B67, B70, B75, B76, B79, B85, B90, B92, B93, B99, B100, B103, B105, B106, B108, B111, B114, B115, B116
- Debt/bills survival (32): B1, B10, B12, B14, B15, B16, B19, B34, B37, B49, B51, B52, B59, B61, B65, B69, B71, B73, B74, B78, B83, B84, B86, B88, B96, B98, B101, B102, B104, B109, B112, B117
- Physical health (34): B4, B5, B6, B8, B15, B20, B22, B23, B26, B30, B32, B35, B36, B38, B46, B50, B51, B63, B65, B67, B68, B69, B73, B76, B84, B85, B87, B89, B91, B98, B99, B100, B116, B118
- Housing (15): B11, B14, B15, B17, B21, B28, B52, B64, B72, B73, B79, B82, B83, B97, B113
- Providing for family (14): B4, B11, B47, B50, B60, B64, B74, B78, B88, B90, B98, B111, B113, B117
- Spirituality/faith (14): B2, B4, B26, B30, B41, B47, B55, B66, B80, B84, B95, B101, B110, B116
- Marriage strain (9): B22, B24, B25, B26, B39, B41, B57, B65, B79
- Family relationships (9): B4, B22, B33, B40, B45, B62, B81, B93, B97
- Emotional/mental health (9): B6, B9, B10, B40, B43, B55, B81, B87, B117
- Employment/career (7): B1, B7, B9, B19, B68, B111, B118
- Retirement/fixed income (7): B28, B51, B53, B54, B78, B101, B107
- Seeking love (7): B2, B9, B29, B66, B77, B107, B116
- Caregiving (7): B16, B38, B61, B72, B73, B113, B115
- Grief/widowhood (6): B16, B21, B29, B49, B82, B115
- Business (5): B11, B14, B31, B37, B44
- Legal/scams (4): B37, B59, B97, B109
- Self-development (3): B7, B58, B110
- Loneliness/friendship (2): B9, B94
- Non-substantive (3): B13, B48, B56
Note: B42 ("All above I need help in each category listed above") endorses every category without specifics and is not assigned to individual themes.
Cohort B — Psychographics: Desires & dreams
Aspirations cluster around security rather than luxury: owning a home, being debt-free, a small cushion. "I wish to debt free, renovations needed for our home done and just a little safety net of money flow in my bank account." (B14); "we don't have our own, house praying and dreaming to have financial-blessings for all of us" (B11). Secondary dream domains: retirement with leisure — "to able to retire and travel!" (B54); romantic companionship — "hoping to find a wonderful man to spend the rest of my life with" (B29); "just wish to live a happy and fulfilled life" (B77); family restoration — "It would be a blessing to have them in my life." (B45); "my family to be complete again" (B81); generosity as a dream — "to donate financially to a couple of charities in the church in Honer of my Mother" (B47); occasional idiosyncratic wishes — "Financial freedom to get the dog of my dreams" (B106); "I want to have another child this year." (B33); and entrepreneurial expansion — "we can have our own family business like a supermarket or a grocery store" (B11).
Pains (present suffering)
The dominant register is active, grinding suffering, described bodily and logistically: "I live with pain all over my body every day." (B69); "I am still in excruciating pain… too painful to walk" (B68); "always tired" (B15). Financial pain is a recurring monthly ordeal: "Every month I have to stretch my money to pay my bills." (B78); "I hate to have to tell my kids we can't cause we don't have the money." (B117). Relational pain is raw and specific: "I feel gaslit by my husband" (B24); "This separation has taken a toll on us emotionally as well as financially." (B81). Grief is fresh for several: "my husband died 6 months ago I am having a bad time with everything!" (B49). Housing deprivation is concrete: "get out of a 10'10 room I've been living in for the past years" (B52). Caregiver exhaustion appears: "It is extremely challenging to make it on his VA disability and Social Security every month." (B61).
Fears (anticipated loss)
Fears are future-oriented and concrete: mortality and time — "fear of running out of time" (B87); dying before obligations are secured — "so when something happens to me the house would be paid and my blind son could stay" (B113); "not enough money to bury my mother and have a funeral properly for her" (B16); job failure — "I really need to ensure I don't fail at this new job." (B9); losing housing to institutions — "That the estate is trying to take" (B97); legal judgments — "I am being sued by friends" (B37); future costs — "without fear of vet bills" (B106); permanent family separation — "waiting patiently for the government to approve his return" (B81).
Personality / voice
- Tone spectrum: runs from terse, label-like answers — "Financial instability" (B3); "Financial , huge debt" (B86); "Lack of adequate finances" (B114) — to long, confessional narratives with full life histories (B101, B16, B11). Politeness rituals are common: many close with "Thank you" (B4, B6, B45, B78, B98).
- Agency & locus of control: a strong external/fate-based locus dominates: luck, blessings, favor, breakthrough, momentum, even malevolent forces. "It seems like I am not a lucky person. Everything I do and/or put my effort into, I end up losing." (B101); "you don't need a miracle; you just need a small streak of good fortune" (B31); "I need favor and prosperity and protection" (B66); "evil people that do witchcraft on me" (B80). A counter-current of effort-based framing expresses thwarted agency rather than control: "I always worked hard but I don't seem to advance in life" (B60); "Always working hard and only getting a fraction of success and abundance" (B103).
- Self-blame vs external attribution: self-blame is rare and tentative — "was sad about mistakes I made" (B9); "I don't know what's wrong with me." (B25). External attribution to other people is more common and pointed: "he is in a financial slump due to poor choices which effects me" (B26); "My spouse recently decided to retire early against my better judgement" (B65); "to help my husband stop drinking alcohol" (B79); "refinancing scam" (B109); "the government to approve his return" (B81).
- Emotional register: a mix of desperation — "I truly need a blessing!" (B82); "The struggle is so real!" (B51) — and dutiful endurance — "work very hard to keep my home" (B21); "Now, I am old and poor… I don't know what to do." (B101). Hope persists alongside: "hoping to find a wonderful man" (B29); "praying and dreaming" (B11).
- Religiosity / spirituality: high and varied. Conventional Christian framing: "My relationship with God" (B2); "go more to church and be and not be so angry and unforgiven" (B4); "someday me as well, God willing. 🙏🏻" (B16); "Amen 🙏" (B32). Prosperity vocabulary: "financial-blessings" (B11); "favor and prosperity and protection" (B66). Spiritual warfare: "witchcraft" (B80). Mystical aspiration: "to strengthen my understanding and awareness to a divine level" (B110). Luck and prayer blend seamlessly: "Please bless my 3 [PRODUCT]s… lift my luck… Please make everything I do or touch be fruitful and bring prosperity." (B101).
- Specificity: bimodal. Many give precise figures and timelines — "more than 20K credits" (B96); "500,000 to 700,000" (B97); "500,00.00 from the car accident" (B59); "about 25 years" (B45); "renting for almost 20 years" (B11); "married 43 yrs" (B82) — while others give one-word category labels with no elaboration (B3, B86, B105, B114).
- Demographic texture in voice: a visibly older cohort self-identifies through age markers — "already 78" (B8); "Im 76 and tired" (B28); "73 years old and still have to work full time as an RN" (B53); "I'm 75yrs old" (B82); "my 92 year old mother" (B115) — with widows, caregivers, and grandparents as recurring identity positions.
Part 3 — Cross-cohort comparison: theme by theme
Financial problems. Both cohorts are dominated by money concerns, but the headline numbers mislead. Cohort A (Cursed)'s coding used a single broad "financial" theme at 73.5%; Cohort B (Overlooked)'s coding split finance into "stability/abundance" (35.6%) and "debt/bills survival" (27.1%), whose disjoint union is ~62.7% — and audit found at least B107 and B113 carry clear financial content missed by both B finance lists, so B's true combined figure is ~64-65%. After harmonizing, the gap is ~9-11 points: direction A > B, but within the range where sampling noise plus coding granularity cannot be ruled out. At minimum: finance is the majority theme in both cohorts.
Physical health. A 38.8% vs B 28.8% — a 10-point gap in A's direction. With these sample sizes the standard error of the difference is roughly 8 points, so this is not robust; the content is near-identical (diabetes: A25/A8 vs B15/B73/B89; chronic leg/body pain: A8/A20 vs B68/B69/B91; a spouse's cancer: A1 vs B23).
Emotional suffering. A coded a broad "emotional suffering" theme including grief at 26.5%; B split this into "emotional" (7.6%) and "grief/widowhood" (5.1%), summing to ~12.7%. The harmonized gap is ~14 points in A's direction — the only theme-level difference large enough to tentatively call real, and even it is partly inflated by A's broader coding (peace-seeking like A30 and A14 counted in A; B's terse mentions like B40 "Finance, family and emotional" counted narrowly). The true gap likely sits between the harmonized 14 points and something smaller.
Romantic/relationship. A's romantic theme 16.3% vs B's union of marriage strain (7.6%) + seeking love (5.9%) ≈ 13%. Effectively similar; the ~3-point gap is noise. A qualitative shade: B's marriage-strain quotes name concrete spousal problems (gaslighting B24, drinking B79, unilateral retirement B65), while A's romantic quotes skew toward seeking/doubting (A23, A29, A46) — but the counts behind this contrast are single digits on both sides.
Family relationships. A 16.3% (8/49) vs B 7.6% (9/118) — a 2x ratio but built on single-digit counts; plausibly noise. The flavor differs: A's family material centers on accusation and active drama ("Family accusing me of taking money from my mother" A14; the near-identical A37; "My adult children no longer like being around me" A35), while B's centers on estrangement and harmony wishes ("I have not talked to my daughter in about 25 years" B45; "I would like my family to get a long" B62). Suggestive, not established.
Religiosity/spirituality. A 16.3% vs B 11.9% as coded — but audit found B's list omits B16 ("God willing. 🙏🏻"), B32 ("Amen 🙏"), and B98 ("I need financial blessings"), which lifts B to ~14-15%. Essentially equal. The registers differ slightly in emphasis: B leans conventional-Christian/prosperity (God, church, blessings, favor: B2, B4, B47, B66) with one spiritual-warfare case (B80); A includes more New-Age/energetic framing (dark cloud and manifestation A13, third eye A49, negative energy release) alongside prayer (A31). Both registers appear in both cohorts; only the mix shifts, on counts too small to call.
Caregiving. A 10.2% vs B 5.9% — noise (5 vs 7 respondents). Same archetype in both: unaided care of an elderly parent (A22, A37 vs B115) or ill spouse (A1 vs B61).
Employment. A 10.2% vs B 5.9% — noise.
Housing. A 8.2% vs B 12.7% — noise; direction B > A. B's housing content includes more pay-off-the-mortgage-before-I-die framing (B28, B113, B17).
Retirement/fixed-income and age markers. B has a distinct retirement-strain theme (5.9%: B28, B53, B78, B101, B107 etc.) and frequent explicit old-age self-identification (78, 76, 73, 75 years old; a 92- and a 95-year-old mother across the two cohorts). A has no retirement theme, though near-retirement age appears once (A17) and A22 cares for a 95-year-old mother. Direction B > A on explicit retirement/age framing, but the counts are too small to call robust; both read as older cohorts.
Providing for family financially. B codes this as a distinct theme (11.9%); in A the equivalent impulse appears in ~3 responses (A13 "for me and my sons", A31 helping sister with bills, A39 struggling single mother) ≈ 6%. Direction B > A, not robust.
Widowhood. B 5.1% (6 widows: B16, B21, B29, B49, B82, B115) vs A ~2% (A5). Noise at these counts.
Non-substantive answers. Both cohorts contain a small residue: A12 (2.0%) vs B13/B48/B56 (2.5%). Same.
Part 3 — Psychographic axes
How Cohort A (Cursed) and Cohort B (Overlooked) compare on the psychographic axes coded in Parts 1 and 2.
- Desires: same in both — security not luxury ("financial breathing room" A5; "just a little safety net" B14), homeownership (A38, B11), debt-free living (A21, B88), with a minority abundance/manifestation register in each (A13, A49; B27, B90). B adds retirement-and-travel (B54) and helping-adult-children (B47, B78) desires that A largely lacks. Mostly similar.
- Pains: same core inventory — grinding monthly money shortfall (A27, B71), chronic body pain (A8, B69), fresh spousal grief (A5, B49), caregiver exhaustion (A22, B61). A's pain narratives skew more emotionally raw and compounded (A17, A29); B's skew more logistical/bodily (B68, B78). Direction consistent with the emotional-suffering gap above; magnitude modest.
- Fears: both fear cascading loss. A's fears are more relational (losing job then relationship A42; partner's deception A29); B's are more mortality- and legacy-shaped (running out of time B87; dying with the house unpaid B113; burial money B16). Qualitative contrast on small counts — suggestive only.
- Voice/tone: indistinguishable in structure — both bimodal between terse labels (A3, A16 / B3, B114) and long confessional narratives (A17, A37 / B101, B16), both with politeness rituals and thank-you closings (A8, A44 / B6, B78) and a petitionary stance toward the survey ("Please pick me" A14; "Thank you for your consideration in the drawing" B6; "Please bless my 3 [PRODUCT]s" B101).
- Agency/locus of control: same split in both — a fate/luck/blessing external locus (A13's dark cloud, A4's "no matter how hard I work" / B101's "not a lucky person", B80's witchcraft) alongside a thwarted-effort worker identity (A17 "still trying day by day" / B60 "I always worked hard but I don't seem to advance"). No measurable difference.
- Self-blame vs external attribution: external attribution dominates in both; explicit self-blame is rare in both (A8, A42 / B9, B25). Same.
- Religiosity: essentially equal after audit correction (~15-16% both); register mix shifts slightly (A more energetic/New-Age, B more church/blessing language) on counts too small to establish.
- Specificity: bimodal in both, with concrete numbers on both sides (A17's "7 months behind", B96's "20K credits"). Same.
Robustness & similarities
With n=49 in Cohort A (Cursed) vs n=118 in Cohort B (Overlooked), one respondent is worth ~2.0 percentage points in A but only ~0.85 in B. For themes in the 10-30% range, the standard error of the difference is roughly 6-9 points: gaps under ~10 points are plausibly sampling noise; only gaps of ~12-15+ points deserve to be called candidate real differences. By that standard:
- Not robust (noise-range): financial dominance (~9-11 pt harmonized), physical health (10 pt), family relationships (8.7 pt on single-digit counts), romantic (~3 pt), religiosity (~1-2 pt corrected), caregiving, employment, housing, retirement, widowhood, providing-for-family (all ≤6 pt or single-digit counts).
- Tentatively real (one item): emotional suffering/grief salience, A ~26.5% vs B ~12.7% harmonized — a ~14-point gap that survives harmonization but is partly a coding-breadth artifact; treat as a lean, not a finding.
Coding-boundary artifacts to respect if reusing these numbers: A's "financial" 73.5% ≈ B's 35.6% + 27.1%; A's "emotional suffering" 26.5% ≈ B's 7.6% + 5.1%. Compare harmonized figures only, never the headline ones.
Similarities
The cohorts are mostly the same. Both are overwhelmingly money-preoccupied (roughly two-thirds to three-quarters once coding is harmonized), health-burdened at similar rates, near-identical in religious language (~15%), similar in romantic/relationship share (~13-16%), and indistinguishable in voice: the same bimodal terse-vs-confessional tone, the same petitionary thank-you posture, the same external locus of control with rare self-blame, the same security-not-luxury desires, and the same older, caregiving, widowed demographic texture. The single candidate difference — emotional suffering and grief being roughly twice as salient in A — is itself partly a coding artifact. Nothing in the quantified data supports treating these as meaningfully different populations.
Audit corrections and coding caveats (applied above)
- Cohort B (Overlooked) religiosity undercount: B16 ("God willing"), B32 ("Amen"), B98 ("financial blessings") carry God-language but were excluded from B's spirituality list; corrected B figure ~14-15%.
- B finance misses: B107 ("money coming enough to pay all the bills") and B113 ("money to pay my house") are in other themes but absent from both B finance lists; corrected B combined finance ~64-65%.
- Cohort A (Cursed) finance edge case: A1 ("depletion of all of our resources") was not counted financial; counting it would move A to 75.5% — does not change any conclusion.
- A family theme breadth: A's family list includes two repair-wishes (A11, A33) alongside conflict cases; the theme was renamed "conflict, accusation, estrangement & repair" to match its ID list.
- B42 endorses all categories without specifics and is unassigned; this slightly deflates every B theme by up to 0.85 points.