Professor Richard Wiseman discusses “How to Get Lucky” in The Skeptical Enquirer:
“Open your mind: consider chance opportunities. Lucky people regularly have them, unlucky people don’t. To determine why, I gave lucky and unlucky people a newspaper and asked them to tell me how many photos were inside. On average, unlucky people spent about two minutes on this exercise. Lucky people spent seconds. Why? Because on the second page of the paper, in huge type, was the message ‘Stop counting: There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.’ Lucky people tended to spot the message. Unlucky ones didn’t.”
“I put a second message half-way through the paper: ‘Stop counting: tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.’ Again, the unlucky people failed to see the message.”
“The lesson: unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”
“Open your mind: consider chance opportunities. Lucky people regularly have them, unlucky people don’t. To determine why, I gave lucky and unlucky people a newspaper and asked them to tell me how many photos were inside. On average, unlucky people spent about two minutes on this exercise. Lucky people spent seconds. Why? Because on the second page of the paper, in huge type, was the message ‘Stop counting: There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.’ Lucky people tended to spot the message. Unlucky ones didn’t.”
“I put a second message half-way through the paper: ‘Stop counting: tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $250.’ Again, the unlucky people failed to see the message.”
“The lesson: unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too busy looking for something else. Lucky people see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.”
