The Luck Factor: The Four Essential Principles (Paperback)

by Richard Wiseman (Author) "Luck exerts a dramatic influence over our lives..." (more)
Key Phrases: lucky expectations, bad luck into good fortune, unlucky people, Luck Journal, Luck School, Luck Profile (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Filled with real-life stories from hundreds of interviews; inspirational quotes from the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Oprah Winfrey; and graphed research data from his eight-year study of luck, Wiseman's book promises to offer "a scientifically proven way to understand, control, and increase your luck." While many believe luck is a mystical force influenced by superstitious rituals, Wiseman, psychology chair at the University of Herfordshire in England, claims lucky people simply possess four basic psychological traits unlucky people don't: the ability to maximize chance opportunities, to listen to "gut feelings," to expect good fortune and to see the bright side of bad luck. Questionnaires and exercises offer guidance on how to acquire or enhance luckiness while keeping a "luck journal" and incorporating techniques to increase intuition, stop negative self-fulfilling prophecies and learn how to effectively network. The format is marked by redundant chapter summaries, but Wiseman's upbeat, charismatic tone might persuade even skeptical readers of the transformative effect luck can have in their personal and professional lives.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
"Might persuade even skeptical readers of the transformative effect luck can have in their personal and professional lives." -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Miramax (August 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401359418
• ISBN-13: 978-1401359416
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #179,546 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It really does work!, July 27, 2005

By	L. H. Witherspoon "book-a-holic" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Luck Factor, The (Hardcover)

All I can say is that we got this book, and things actually DID strart going better, including getting a better job, having more positive things happen, etc. Things literally turned around. And that was within one month. I liked the exercises - very practical and doable.

In regard to the idea that he didn't have any objective test for luck - Dr. W. had subjects go into rather lengthy descriptions of what in their lives had happened to support their perception of themselves as lucky or unlucky. By most people's standards, the unlucky people WERE having rather hard times. The lucky people were having a much easier time.

It's important to remember that Dr. W. is sort of professional skeptic - he's not into the paranormal. He got these principles out of hard-headed investigation. I learned in the lab - don't argue with the results you have gotten! He's gotten good results - try it for yourself and see!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad.... not bad at all, March 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Luck Factor, The (Hardcover)

The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman is definitely one of the more interesting/entertaining books I have read in my lifetime. I am not much of an avid book reader, but I do know a good book when I read one. Throughout the book, the doctor details the data gathered from many people of various types who he studied to discover just what exactly makes one person "luckier" than another. One thing he found was that persons who exert themselves socially create more contacts and more opportunities for "lucky" events. He spent eight years doing many elaborate tests and comparing the data from these tests. And with the results, he compiled this masterpiece book that everyone should read--especially the unlucky!

173 of 224 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe Change Your Life. Forget About Changing Your Luck!, April 28, 2003

By	AA Hunt-Anschutz (Scotland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Luck Factor, The (Hardcover)

Richard Wiseman heads a research unit in the psychology department at the University of Hertfordshire, so you'd think he'd know something about experimental methodology. Unfortunately, you'd never guess it by reading this book. Wiseman claims that his research has revealed that `the real explanation behind luck lies in four basic psychological principles'. The selling point of `The Luck Factor' is these principles to can be used to `make unlucky people lucky, and lucky people even luckier.'

The main difficulty with this claim is that at no point in his book does Wiseman present any sort of objective test for `luck'. Rather, his subjects classify themselves as `lucky' or `unlucky' (and he simply takes their word for it) or else they are classified by him as such based on their own subjective evaluation of the degree to which they share certain characteristics with people who see themselves as either `lucky' or `unlucky'. Since the `four principles' are based on data about people who feel lucky, rather than people who are lucky in some objective sense, the only honest claim that could be made based on Wiseman's research is that some people who follow his `four principles' might begin to think of themselves as luckier.

The problem with using people's subjective evaluation of their own luckiness is revealed in an experiment (presented early in the book) to determine whether `lucky' people have more psychic ability than `unlucky' people. Seven hundred volunteers who phoned in upon viewing a particular television programme (Random population sample? Why bother?) were asked to categorise themselves as lucky, unlucky or neutral based on how well they felt they matched Wiseman's `Lucky Description' or `Unlucky Description'. Here's the Lucky description for reference (complete with grammatical errors):

"Lucky people are people for whom seemingly chance events tend to work out consistently in their favour. For example, they seem to win more than their fair share of raffles and lotteries, or to accidentally meet people who can help them in some way, or their good fortune might play an important role in them achieving their ambitions and goals."

All of the volunteers entered the same draw of the National Lottery, buying an average of three tickets each. None of the subjects won more than £56 pounds (that amount was won by two participants, one `lucky' and one `unlucky'). On average both `lucky' and `unlucky' participants lost about £2.50. Wiseman's conclusion: `The results indicated that luck wasn't due to psychic ability'.

The results indicate something entirely different to me. The description of `lucky' specifically talks about winning lotteries. Yet people who classified themselves as `lucky' according to this description didn't do any better at the lottery than those who classified themselves as `unlucky' (though `lucky' people's expectations of winning were more than twice as high as those of `unlucky' people). This would seem to indicate that the `lucky' people who participated in this experiment were anything but. They may have been more optimistic, unrealistic, or self-deluding, but they weren't luckier.

Wiseman comments:

"When it comes to random events like the lottery, such expectations count for little. Someone with a high expectation of winning will do as well as someone with a low expectation. However, life is not like a lottery. Often our expectations make a difference. They make a difference to whether we try something, how hard we persist in the face of failure, how we interact with others and how others interact with us."

That's all very true, but when Wiseman admits that expectations `count for little' when it comes to `random events' he is more or less admitting that they have nothing to do with luck.

Wiseman goes on to analyse the characteristics of `Lucky' people (i.e. those who think they are lucky, but probably aren't any luckier than the rest of us) and finds that they have several things in common. Unsurprisingly, they expect good fortune and they see the positive side to random events (for example, having just broken her leg in a freak accident, an `unlucky' person would say `It was bad luck' whereas a `lucky' person would tend to say `I'm lucky I wasn't killed').

Much of the evidence given in this book is anecdotal and many of the anecdotes intended to illustrate someone's luck or lack thereof fail miserably. Women who end up in successive abusive relationships are described as `unlucky in love', though choice, not luck, determines who we marry; and a person who gets involved with someone she doesn't fully trust is better characterised as `desperate' than `unlucky'. Similarly, we hear anecdotes about `lucky' people who enter contests and win prizes. We later learn that entering contests is their hobby and it's only because they enter so many that they win. Statistical probability is involved here, not luck.

But Wiseman doesn't hesitate to extract `ways to improve your luck' from these instances. The women who are `unlucky in love' are meant to show how we can improve our luck by trusting our intuition. (Despite the fact that they had blatant, as well as intuitive, indicators that their men were jerks). The contest winners supposedly illustrate that we can improve our luck by being more persistent-- though I fail to see how increasing one's chances of achieving something through deliberate, persistent and calculated effort has anything to do with `luck'.

I'm sure some of the clichéd suggestions in this book (e.g. positive thinking and networking) will help some readers (those who haven't heard it all before) to improve their chances of achieving their goals. I doubt any of them will help readers to improve their luck. My opinion of this book would have been much higher if the author had straightforwardly framed his findings in terms of `How to make the most of your opportunities.' I really would like to read some properly conducted scientific research which addresses the question of whether some people are innately luckier than others and, if so, what characteristics they share. Unfortunately, Dr. Wiseman seems to have different interests.