I come from a fairly Irish family, and people always say that my dad has the “luck of the Irish”. So naturally I wondered if luck is real, or is it more of a paranormal thing, like what we learned in class-something scientists cannot provide an explanation for. What is “luck”? What makes certain people seem luckier than others? Is their a scientific explanation or theory behind luck?
According to an article by the Skeptical Inquirer, luck is not just a random thing that we either are or are not born with. Both lucky and unlucky people do not know why they have good or bad luck, but scientists have come up with several reasons as to why luck exists.
Another article by the Scientific American references Scientist Richard Wiseman, author of the Skeptical Inquirer article. In the Scientific American, the author references Wiseman’s “big five” personality scale, which he used to measure his subjects’ “agreeableness,” “conscientiousness,” “extroversion,” “neuroticism” and “openness.” Wiseman found no difference in regards to unlucky and lucky people’s conscientiousness and agreeableness, but he did see a large difference in extroversion, neuroticism, and openness of unlucky and lucky people. The lucky people proved to be much more extroverted, more relaxed (low in neuroticism), and more open. It is for these reasons that they are “lucky”- it is a mindset. Those that are more extroverted are more likely to approach others that have good ideas or reach out to someone that may be especially recognized in their field. Because the lucky individual is more outgoing, they have more opportunities to connect with people that can help advance them or connect with them in their work, personal life, love life, etc.
A lucky individual is low in neuroticism, and usually fairly relaxed. They are more likely to slow down and pick up on a random opportunity. They are also more open-minded and willing to take chances, travel, and are up for anything. According to an article in The Daily Mail, the main pattern found in their research on “luck” was that lucky people realized that an opportunity was happening to them, and then decided to take advantage of it. So be more extroverted, realize when you are given an opportunity, and then seize it! You never know what you will find!
Sources
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2224473/Feeling-lucky-The-scientific-proof-DO-make-luck.html
http://richardwiseman.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/the_luck_factor.pdf
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=as-luck-would-have-it
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