The Psychology of Luck & How to Get Good Luck

Looking into the psychology of luck, how does personality psychology relate to being lucky, and can you give yourself good luck? Is being high and low in certain personality traits connected to being luckier?

Why is it that some people seem to have good luck? For some people, everything seems to go their way. They are often lucky in relationships, and with their careers and finances.

Big Five Personality Traits & Good Luck

The Big Five is a highly respected and cited personality model, with the majority of psychologists considering it an accurate and reliable measure of personality. Each personality trait actually has around five or six sub-traits, giving a total of twenty-five plus traits in total. However, we will be focusing on the main five traits.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is the hard working trait, and it is one of the biggest predictors of financial success. So, you would think that hard-working people are more likely to be luckier than those lazy-none-hard working people. However, the research suggests that this trait has very little impact on a person’s luck.

Agreeableness

Whether someone was high or low on agreeable also has very little impact on a person’s overall luck.

The next three traits did show a significant difference in a person’s good luck.

Openness

People high in openness tend to look for opportunities, and they are often more optimistic about those opportunities. They are also more open to new experiences and trying new things. They are generally less restricted by conventions and traditions.

Extroversion

Extroverted people tend to be luckier than introverts. This is because extroverts are always talking to people, and generally being social. This can lead to creating and finding opportunities, both in a career and relationship sense.

Extroversion is also the positive emotion trait, and positivity tends to breed more positivity. Emotions are contagious, so positive emotions are likely to attract more positivity, therefore luck.

Neuroticism

People who are low in trait neuroticism tend to have more good luck than those who are high in neuroticism. High neuroticism is connected to being more inward directed, more self-conscious, less relaxed, more anxious, and having lower confidence.

People who are inward focused, more stressed, self-conscious, and generally less relaxed tend to be less observant. Being less observant and in the moment means someone is less likely to notice and pick up on things. They are less likely to notice money lying around, or opportunities that they could find in a newspaper, or while browsing on the internet.

People who are more confident, and who have a higher level of self-belief also tend to be luckier. More confident people will be more daring and more likely to ask for things because they believe they deserve it.      

How to Get Good Luck?

If you want to make yourself luckier but, unfortunately, you don’t think you have the right personality traits, you can still work on the weaker aspects of yourself to improve your luck.

These personality traits are considered to be at least 50 percent determined by your biology. Probably more, it will depend on things like culture. However, just because they are largely a genetic factor doesn’t mean you can’t work on improving your weaker aspects.

If you are low in extroversion, you can still work on improving your extroverted side. You can make a conscious effort to be more social, even if it’s only slightly. You could start paying more attention to your surroundings, and to relax. You could also work on mixing things up, seeking new experiences and doing things that you wouldn’t normally do.

If something doesn’t come naturally to you, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It may just mean that you need to work harder at it.