How Luck Affects Us

We’ve heard people say that bad things happen in threes and after the first two bad incidents those who believe in this seem to be walking around just waiting for that third stroke of bad luck. Do they bring that third occurrence on themselves by looking for it or do they perceive some other event to be unlucky just to get the third bad thing over with? After all, bad things are relative.

So what about good luck? We’ve never heard of someone waiting for a third lucky thing to happen but some people believe that the number 3 is, in fact, a lucky number. We hear about athletes that have a lucky sock for game days but they certainly don’t get rid of said sock after three wears. WEhave friends who have some sort of lucky charm but they continue to hold onto that sacred item and don’t believe that it has an expiration date.

LUCK AT THE CASINO

Anyone who has ever stood in a casino sees rituals meant to bring luck at every glance: the man asking his girlfriend to blow on the dice at the craps table, the woman at the roulette table placing her bet on the day her child was born or the lady who walks past each slot machine until she feels luck emanating from a particular one. Do these really affect a person’s winnings or is it all just chance when one of these players hits it big?

What happens when gamblers play with online casinos and no one can blow on the dice? Players on online casinos might still bet on their lucky numbers, scroll through pages of online slots until they get that lucky feeling, deposit a lucky amount of money into their online account or only gamble on their lucky day. If they win big after engaging in one of the above activities, was it really because of luck or coincidence?

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Dr. Mike Aitken and Professor David Spiegelhalter, both of whom work at the University of Cambridge, designed BBC Lab UK’s new study, the Big Risk Test. Their goal is twofold: one is to understand how people judge, comprehend and take risks and the other is to find out whether believing in luck affects our perceptions of risks in everyday life.

When something good happens on a particular day, that may be considered a lucky day. For instance, a player at the Roulette table places his bet on the number corresponding to the day he was born because he believes he has a better chance to win. In this case, Aitken says that there is no way that using this strategy “can influence the likelihood that you’re going to win.”

However, Aitken said: “Research has suggested that people who think of themselves as lucky actually are lucky, because they are more willing to take advantage of opportunities.”

BELIEVING IN LUCK

In 1997, two Canadian psychologists developed the BIGL, better known as the Belief in Good Luck Scale, which measures how much a person believes in luck. Is luck the catalyst for good things to happen or is luck arbitrary and unpredictable? A study conducted prior to the BIGL Scale discredited the idea that a person’s confidence and overall satisfaction with life was related to luck. However, people who consider themselves to be lucky seem to be more optimistic and open to the idea of a “lucky break” which ultimately makes them more self-assured and optimistic.

When we decide to take a chance on something most of us use one of two things-either we evaluate the risk using our brain and some type of risk analysis or we trust our gut and feelings to lead us.

Other psychologists stress that believing in luck can help people deal with random events like accidents or natural disasters since people tend to be more positive towards unfortunate incidents when a situation is out of their control.

LUCK VERSUS KNOWLEDGE

So, what does this mean for the online slots player or the guy who is betting on his favourite football team? Simply, it means that gamblers, in particular, need to know what they are betting on. They need to trust their gut in their own actions, but ultimately, knowledge is worth something. Luck is a short term guide to gambling. However, placing your bets with the knowledge of the odds and rules of any casino game will, in the long run, increase your bank account That is, after all, the reason we went to the online casino in the first place!

source BBC News