Wiseman, 37, is head of a psychology research department at the University of Hertfordshire in England. For the past eight years, he and his colleagues at the university’s Perrott-Warrick Research Unit have studied what makes some people lucky and others not. After conducting thousands of interviews and hundreds of experiments, Wiseman now claims that he’s cracked the code. Luck isn’t due to kismet, karma, or coincidence, he says. Instead, lucky folks—without even knowing it—think and behave in ways that create good fortune in their lives.
If we define “luck” as an unusual propensity for fortunate/unfortunate things to happen at random, then Wiseman does not disagree. Wiseman explains the subjective experience of luck in terms of more fundamental character traits that give rise to predictable tendencies. There’s nothing irrational about it; arational, maybe, but not irrational.
If we define “luck” as an unusual propensity for fortunate/unfortunate things to happen at random, then Wiseman does not disagree. Wiseman explains the subjective experience of luck in terms of more fundamental character traits that give rise to predictable tendencies.
Yes, exactly. The fact that the typical person’s understanding of “luck” does not include a correct theory of how “luck” occurs, doesn’t prevent them from observing that there is in fact such a thing and that people vary in their degree of having it.
This sort of thing happens a lot, because human brains are very good at picking up certain kinds of patterns about things that matter to them. They’re just very bad at coming up with truthful explanations, as opposed to simple predictive models or useful procedures!
The crowd that believes in “The Secret” is talking about many of the same things as Wiseman’s research; I’ve seen all 4 of his principles in the LoA literature before. I haven’t read his book, but my guess is that I will have already seen better practical instruction in these principles from books that were written by people who claim to be channeling beings from another dimension… which would just go to show how better theories aren’t always related to better practices.
To be fair, it is a Fast Company piece on the research; I really ought to read the actual book before I judge. Still, from previous experience, scientific advice tends to be dreadfully vague compared to the advice of people who have experience coaching other people at doing something. (i.e. scientific advice is usually much more suggestive than prescriptive, and more about “what” than “how”.)
Really? At least one scientist appears to disagree with you:
If we define “luck” as an unusual propensity for fortunate/unfortunate things to happen at random, then Wiseman does not disagree. Wiseman explains the subjective experience of luck in terms of more fundamental character traits that give rise to predictable tendencies. There’s nothing irrational about it; arational, maybe, but not irrational.
Yes, exactly. The fact that the typical person’s understanding of “luck” does not include a correct theory of how “luck” occurs, doesn’t prevent them from observing that there is in fact such a thing and that people vary in their degree of having it.
This sort of thing happens a lot, because human brains are very good at picking up certain kinds of patterns about things that matter to them. They’re just very bad at coming up with truthful explanations, as opposed to simple predictive models or useful procedures!
The crowd that believes in “The Secret” is talking about many of the same things as Wiseman’s research; I’ve seen all 4 of his principles in the LoA literature before. I haven’t read his book, but my guess is that I will have already seen better practical instruction in these principles from books that were written by people who claim to be channeling beings from another dimension… which would just go to show how better theories aren’t always related to better practices.
To be fair, it is a Fast Company piece on the research; I really ought to read the actual book before I judge. Still, from previous experience, scientific advice tends to be dreadfully vague compared to the advice of people who have experience coaching other people at doing something. (i.e. scientific advice is usually much more suggestive than prescriptive, and more about “what” than “how”.)