Winston Churchill passed away on January 24, 1965
Richard Wiseman, a British psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire, has been looking into what are the differences between lucky and unlucky people.
He looked at self-professed lucky and self-professed unlucky people to see how opportunities arose in their lives.
He found that people who swayed more towards being extraverted rather than introverted were luckier, at least in their own opinions.
Wiseman maintains that their sociability increases the likelihood of them falling into lucky situations or happening to run into valuable opportunities.
On the other hand, people who tend to consider themselves unlucky also tend to score around twice as high in neuroticism as lucky people.
Related to them being extraverted, the people who considered themselves lucky smiled twice as much and engaged in more eye contact.
The screen displays a moving dot in the center of the screen and then larger dots begin flashing at the edges of the screen. Almost everyone notices the larger dots.
For example, someone who is “nice,” smiles a lot, and connects with people will be more likely to be offered a job over someone who is more reserved and shy, simply because the hiring manager may just want to have a cheerful person around the office to lift the mood.
The Big Five personality theory is one of the most widely accepted broad frames of analysis in psychology and categorizes people on five dimensions (extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism).
The conclusion that can be drawn here is that anxiety does help with a task, but it also blinds us to other opportunities.
Wiseman wanted to prove his theory further and so designed another experiment. In this one, two groups (lucky vs. unlucky) were given newspapers, and individuals were asked to count the photos in them.
The test for how neurotic people were was done through testing for anxiety in a controlled environment. The individuals were asked to watch a screen.
To test for how anxious people become, the experiment is repeated with another group accepting a financial reward to be offered for concentration on the center dot.
They were shown how to spot good opportunities, how to make better decisions, and how to have a positive outlook.
Luckier people are also more optimistic. They expect things to go well, and these beliefs and expectations more often than not become reality.
Unlucky people, in a bad situation, are more inclined to only see the negative points and therefore miss opportunities to make it better.
With all of this in mind, you might be wondering if we can increase luck. Wiseman believed it and even put participants in something called 'luck school,' and the results were astonishing.
Keeping an open mind helps us become happier. Worrying about obtaining a goal closes your eyes to other opportunities.
Focusing on negatives dampens people’s spirits and future expectations. If you spend your time complaining about how bad your guitar is, for instance, you are less likely to take the opportunity to learn it well.
Beyond this, it is rather obvious that the reality is that some people are born with every advantage and others not so much. We make our luck, but only to an extent. Passengers sometimes find themselves in planes soaring for the Earth’s crust and no amount of positive thinking will change it.
Wiseman found it very important to try new things because routines leave room for ruts, which is where bad luck lives.
However, if you are grateful for what you have, open yourself up to new people and places, and step outside your routine, you’re likely to find yourself happier and running into a spot of luck a bit more often.
Sources: (The Luck Factor)
See also: Good luck charms, bad luck signs!
After one month, 80% of the participants reported themselves as happier, more satisfied, and luckier. Lucky people got luckier and unlucky people became lucky.
The people who were less anxious and scored lower in neuroticism spotted a note on the second page of the newspapers, a large message that read "stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper."
Neuroticism encapsulates someone’s proclivity to feel negative emotions like anger, anxiety, self‐consciousness, irritability, emotional instability, and depression.
People who we consider to be lucky (or at least consider themselves to be lucky) will be more open. They speak to new people, travel to new places, and try new things.
“Lucky people” took seconds. “Unlucky people” took minutes. Why? Because the lucky people were less anxious (singularly focused) and were more open and observant.
It’s the lack of opportunities and prospects that deems the other camp unlucky. They might speak to just a few select people at a party, for instance, and miss out on meeting others who are interesting.
These financial rewards up the stakes and those who are considered to be higher in neuroticism will miss the large dots flashing (because they’re so worried about keeping their eyes on the prize).
We have always understood that the nature of luck is chance. To be lucky or unlucky is pretty much defined as being outside of a person’s immediate influence. But what if we’re wrong?
A researcher delved deeper to understand whether the person who lands that job or who manages to maintain a happy relationship behaves differently. And guess what? There are differences!
Much of the information can be used to our advantage. To learn more, click through this gallery.
Find out if you are lucky or unlucky
The good news is that your luck is in your control!
LIFESTYLE Psychology
We have always understood that the nature of luck is chance. To be lucky or unlucky is pretty much defined as being outside of a person’s immediate influence. But what if we’re wrong?
A researcher delved deeper to understand whether the person who lands that job or who manages to maintain a happy relationship behaves differently. And guess what? There are differences!
Much of the information can be used to our advantage. To learn more, click through this gallery.