[user104658]

So essentially what we're saying is that God and Prayer are a placebo? The "believer" prays and after doing so truly believes that they will be given help from a higher power - this gives them a massive boost in confidence (and therefore appearance) and increases the likelihood of them taking "calculated risks", and because of this, they are more likely to succeed, artificially reinforcing their belief system and at the same time (theoretically) further strengthening the placebo effect of prayer in future. It worked once so it will work again, right?

Very interesting, actually...