The Serendipitous Science of Luck

Is the phenomenon real? Can it be harnessed?

A conversation with psychology professor Barbara Blatchley about luck—and how changes to your mindset might get you a little more of it.

Optimists believe in good luck, pessimists in bad. But if it’s all a matter of perspective, does luck even exist?

Lucky charms can have real, measurable effects — past research has shown, for example, that people perform better at golf if they believe they’re using a lucky ball — but unlucky things have their own kind of power.

The main thing that damps down the role of luck is repetition, statisticians say.

Are the most successful people in society just the luckiest people?

And how casinos’ ”luck ambassadors“ keep you spending.

Maria Konnikova decided to learn how to play poker to better understand the role of luck in our lives, examining the game through the lens of psychology and human behavior.

Acknowledging the role of luck is the secular equivalent of religious awakening.

For many in Western history, games of chance represented a portal of possibility, not a heresy to be demonized or a statistical probability to be managed.