Luck can often seem like something we cannot control; however, we can create our own luck.
Psychology professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire has long investigated what makes people lucky, discovering four key principles behind it: they recognize opportunities, build self-fulfilling prophecies through positive expectations, and have resilient attitudes.
1. Observation
Observation is the second step of the scientific method, and involves gathering information through human senses or instruments. Observations may either be qualitative in nature (recording presence/absence of phenomena), or quantitative where data such as numbers or measurements is gathered.
Studies on luck have attempted to establish its existence, such as measuring serendipity. AMRIS Associate Director Stephann Makri believes that being open-minded and aware of your surroundings are keys to serendipity; lucky people tend to be extroverts who smile more often, adept at making connections and maintaining relationships.
2. Self-fulfilling prophecies
Self-fulfilling prophecies are a type of feedback loop in which our expectations or fears cause something we expected or feared to occur, for instance if you anticipate failing an exam and don’t prepare, you are more likely to fail than study for it and find out you did in fact fail. Or if we suspect our spouse of cheating on us and find evidence of an affair confirming that belief.
Merton believed that self-fulfilling prophecies could either be intrapersonal (affecting oneself) or interpersonal (affecting others), with either being intrapersonal (affecting only you) or interpersonal ( affecting multiple individuals). Merton considered such causal loops a form of luck as they arise out of people’s beliefs and ideas that lead them into taking actions which make their conceptions come to life.
3. Superstitions
Superstitions are supernatural beliefs or practices about fortune that range from reading signs to taking specific steps that bring good luck or prevent bad. Superstitions may have their roots in religion or cultural tradition – many cultures believe black cats to be unlucky while stepping on mirrors can bring bad fortune, according to Thompson.
While difficult to prove, Lucky people typically approach life differently. They’re more likely to spot opportunities, and may even create their own luck by remaining optimistic in situations or projects they undertake – this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy which often yields unexpectedly positive outcomes. Framing setbacks is also key: by emphasizing what went right instead of what didn’t, lucky people can turn bad experiences into opportunities.
4. Optimism
Attitude towards luck can have a dramatic effect on a person’s life. They might think it is wiser to take risks even when the odds are against them because they believe luck will favor them in the end, leading them to persist even if their first attempts at something do not yield any tangible success.
Researchers have also noted that people’s perception of luck depends on their personality traits. People who tend towards positivity tend to view other people as lucky.
Dispositional optimism can be measured using the 12-item Life Orientation Test and has been found to be affected both by genetics and environment, contributing significantly to its manifestation in an individual.
5. Confidence
One of the key ingredients of luck is confidence. Being confident can lead to better decisions at casinos, sportsbooks or online betting platforms – but also increase risk. Learn to recognize and avoid Dunning-Kruger effects to keep your confidence at a manageable level.
MagLab physicist Audrey Grockowiak hails from France, so it should come as no surprise that her experiments on luck involve wine and food. Alongside her colleagues, Audrey has been conducting trials examining how people’s counterfactual thought responses to events with different levels of detail affect confidence levels and willingness to gamble on similar future events; their results were surprising: They revealed how being lucky can depend as much on attitude as talent or hard work.