Monday, March 27, 2006

Do you feel lucky?


If so, you probably are feeling quite satisfied with many aspects of your life, too. So says Michael Shermer in this Scientific American article, recounting the work of the experimental psychologist Richard Wiseman.

Lucky people score significantly higher than unlucky people on extroversion. "There are three ways in which lucky people's extroversion significantly increases the likelihood of their having a lucky chance encounter," Wiseman explains: "meeting a large number of people, being a 'social magnet' and keeping in contact with people." Lucky people, for example, smile twice as often and engage in more eye contact than unlucky people do, which leads to more social encounters, which generates more opportunities.

"Lucky people" in the above quote, actually, are people who consider themselves lucky. Shermer goes on to describe how well 'feeling lucky' is correlated with "agreeableness," "conscientiousness," "extroversion," "neuroticism" and "openness."

Do read the whole thing.

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