hope, rather than any sound principles. So, does that mean that luck is simply a matter of chance? Are we doomed to be creatures shaped by random events? More to the point, can you actually control your luck, in a purposeful and deliberate manner, in order to produce above average outcomes? According to some researchers, the answer is a clear ‘yes’! Professor Richard Wiseman (a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, and author of The Luck Factor) spent more than ten years studying ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ people. In one set of experiments, Wiseman tested the influence of lucky charms on perceptions of luck. He began by asking volunteers about their levels of life satisfaction, happiness, and luck. He then gave each person a good luck charm, purchased from a New Age centre. A few weeks later, Wiseman surveyed the volunteers a second time, and then compared the two sets of results. Overall, he found no statistically significant difference between the two sets of data, which led him to conclude that the charms had no discernible effect on the levels of luck experienced by the participants. As part of his studies, Wiseman recruited 400 volunteers, and subjected them to a range of carefully designed tests. Wiseman was careful to ask for people who considered themselves to be exceptionally lucky or unlucky, effectively concentrating his research on people at either end of the ‘luck spectrum’. In one of these experiments, Wiseman asked representatives from both groups to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. Astonishingly, the ‘unlucky’ people took about two minutes to count the photographs, while the ‘lucky’ group completed the task in just a few seconds! The explanation for this strange result lies in the design of the experiment. Wiseman doctored his newspaper, planting a half-page message on page two, which read, “Stop counting – There are 43 photographs in this newspaper”. He used lettering which was over two inches in height, and then followed this up with a second message, in the middle of the newspaper, which read, “Stop counting, tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250”. The difference between the two groups left Wiseman with clear evidence that self-described ‘lucky’ and ‘unlucky’ people interacted differently with their environment. He concluded that the unlucky people missed an important opportunity because they were too focussed on the detail of the task. In contrast, the lucky group were employing strategies which allowed them to look beyond simply counting photographs. These strategies allowed the lucky people to see things which the unlucky group missed. In particular, Wiseman identified four principles that lucky people use in order to generate their good fortune: 01. Opportunities – ‘Lucky’ people are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities. 02. Intuition – ‘Lucky’ people make ‘lucky’ decisions by listening to their intuition. 03. Expectations – ‘Lucky’ people create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations. 04. Attitude – ‘Lucky’ people adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Wiseman backed up his claims around positivity and resilience by presenting his lucky and unlucky groups with a story about a bank robbery. In this story, the subject is standing in line waiting to be served by the bank teller. An armed robber enters the bank, and accidently discharges a firearm. The bullet strikes the subject in the arm, injuring them as a result. Wiseman then asked each subject whether this was a lucky or unlucky event. For people in the unlucky group the event was clearly seen as unlucky. However, people in the lucky group tended to view the outcome as a lucky event, particularly when they considered some of the possible alternative scenarios. Once again, the different conclusions drawn by the two groups pointed to significant attitudinal differences between the lucky and unlucky participants. Intrigued by these findings, Wiseman tried one further experiment, which he called “Luck School”. Wiseman took the findings from his research (including the four principles used by lucky people) and shared them with his test subjects. He then showed them techniques which they could use to practice these principles in real life, and then he sent them away for one month. After a month, Wiseman retested the subjects and compared their results with tests he had conducted on them four weeks earlier. Four out of every five of the participants reported being happier and more satisfied with life, as well as feeling luckier. Not only had lucky people become luckier, but unlucky people now reported feeling luckier than previously. Wiseman’s experiments led him to conclude that luck was an attitude of mind which could be shaped through the use of learned techniques. If Wiseman is right, then we have far more control over our lives than we might imagine. In particular, there are positive steps that we can take to increase our own good fortune, and possibly the good fortune of those around us. The question then becomes not so much “can we do it?”, but rather “will we do it?”. So, do you feel lucky? Well, do you? About the author Phil Sales is specialist business coach, interested in 'cool stuff' in the business development sector. For more about Phil, see https://iact15.wixsite.com/iactltd/who-we-are December 2022 { 27 }
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