© Shutterstock

Richard Wiseman -

Richard Wiseman, a British psychology professor at the University of Hertfordshire, has been looking into what are the differences between lucky and unlucky people.

© Getty Images

How opportunities arise -

He looked at self-professed lucky and self-professed unlucky people to see how opportunities arose in their lives.

© Shutterstock

Extraversion -

He found that people who swayed more towards being extraverted rather than introverted were luckier, at least in their own opinions.

© Shutterstock

Luckier people smile more -

Related to them being extraverted, the people who considered themselves lucky smiled twice as much and engaged in more eye contact.

© Shutterstock

Highly social people are luckier -

Wiseman maintains that their sociability increases the likelihood of them falling into lucky situations or happening to run into valuable opportunities.

© Shutterstock

It's common sense -

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.

© Shutterstock

Missed opportunities -

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. 

© Shutterstock

Unlucky people score higher in neuroticism -

On the other hand, people who tend to consider themselves unlucky also tend to score around twice as high in neuroticism as lucky people.

© Shutterstock

The Big Five personality theory -

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).

© Shutterstock

High levels of neuroticism -

Neuroticism encapsulates someone’s proclivity to feel negative emotions like anger, anxiety, self‐consciousness, irritability, emotional instability, and depression.

© Shutterstock 

Watching a screen -

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.

© Shutterstock

Everyone notices the larger dots -

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.

© Shutterstock

When the stakes are raised -

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.

© Shutterstock

People look too hard and miss the larger dots -

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).

© Shutterstock

Anxiety blinds us -

The conclusion that can be drawn here is that anxiety does help with a task, but it also blinds us to other opportunities.

© Shutterstock

Lucky people are higher in openness -

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.

© Shutterstock

The next experiment -

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.

© Shutterstock

Lucky people finished in seconds -

“Lucky people” took seconds. “Unlucky people” took minutes. Why? Because the lucky people were less anxious (singularly focused) and were more open and observant.

© Shutterstock

Unlucky people were looking so hard that they missed the clue -

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."

© Shutterstock

Luckier people are more optimistic -

Luckier people are also more optimistic. They expect things to go well, and these beliefs and expectations more often than not become reality.

© Shutterstock

Unlucky people are pessimists -

Unlucky people, in a bad situation, are more inclined to only see the negative points and therefore miss opportunities to make it better.

© Shutterstock

Wiseman and luck school -

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.

© Shutterstock

Luck school was a success -

After one month, 80% of the participants reported themselves as happier, more satisfied, and luckier. Lucky people got luckier and unlucky people became lucky.

© Shutterstock

The luck school curriculum -

They were shown how to spot good opportunities, how to make better decisions, and how to have a positive outlook.

© Shutterstock

Keep an open mind -

Keeping an open mind helps us become happier. Worrying about obtaining a goal closes your eyes to other opportunities.

© Shutterstock

Manage negative thoughts and expectations -

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.

© Shutterstock

Switch up the routine every now and again -

Wiseman found it very important to try new things because routines leave room for ruts, which is where bad luck lives.

© Shutterstock

It's not all entirely within our control -

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.

© Shutterstock

Step outside your comfort zone -

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!

© Shutterstock