Luck is the phenomenon and belief that a experience is an improbable event.
Luck may be improbably positive or negative.
Positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to random and non-random natural and artificial processes, and that even improbable events can happen by random chance.
Lucky or unlucky label that refers to an event’s positivity, negativity, or improbability.
Supernatural interpretations of luck consider it to be an attribute of a person or object, or the result of a favorable or unfavorable view of a deity upon a person.
Born lucky may hold different meanings: been born into a good family or circumstance; or that they habitually experience improbably positive events, due to some inherent property, or due to the lifelong favor of a god/goddess in a religion.
Many superstitions are related to luck.
Superstitions are often specific to a given culture and sometimes are contradictory.
Luck has three aspects:
Luck is good or bad.
Luck is the result of chance.
Luck applies to a sentient being.
Luck refers to that which happens to a person beyond that person’s control.
This view incorporates phenomena that are chance happenings, a person’s place of birth for example, but where there is no uncertainty involved, or where the uncertainty is irrelevant.
Three different types of luck:
Constitutional luck, that is, luck with factors that cannot be changed. Place of birth and genetic constitution are typical examples.
Circumstantial luck—with factors that are haphazardly brought on. Accidents and epidemics are typical examples.
Ignorance luck, that is, luck with factors one does not know about.
Circumstantial luck with accidental happenstance of favorable discoveries and/or inventions is serendipity.
Luck is a probability taken personally.
A rationalist approach to luck includes the application of the rules of probability and an avoidance of unscientific beliefs.
The rationalist thinks that the belief in luck is a result of poor reasoning or wishful thinking.
The gambler’s fallacy and inverse gambler’s fallacy both explain some reasoning problems in common beliefs in luck: denying the unpredictability of random events.
Spiritual, or supernatural beliefs regarding fortune suggest that luck can be influenced through spiritual means by performing certain rituals or by avoiding certain circumstances.
Luck can also be a belief in an organization of fortunate and unfortunate events.
Luck is a form of superstition.
Belief in Divine Providence varies, as most acknowledge providence as at least a partial, if not complete influence on luck.
Some evidence supports the idea that belief in luck acts like a placebo, producing positive thinking and improving people’s responses to events.
People differ from each other depending on beliefs in luck, rejection of luck, being lucky, and being unlucky.
People who believe in good luck are more optimistic, more satisfied with their lives, and have better moods.
People who believe they are personally unlucky experience more anxiety, and less likely to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
Skill enhances expectation and reduces luck.
Most cultures consider some numbers to be lucky or unlucky, particularly strong in Asian cultures.
Numerology, as it relates to luck, is closer to an art than to a science, and may be a delusion that numbers have power over events.
Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles: skill at creating and noticing chance opportunities, making lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, creating self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopting a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
Good luck and good mood often occur together and that people who believe themselves to be lucky are often comparatively happy and optimistic whereas people who believe themselves to be unlucky may feel comparatively anxious and depressed.
Luck can also correlate with superstitious behaviors that increase opportunities of good fortune occurring like avoiding walking under ladders or blowing left and right for safe travels before crossing train tracks, which inadvertently increases your chances of seeing an oncoming train.
Priming participants subliminally with luck-related stimuli makes them feel luckier and happier.