How To Improve Your Luck In Gambling
and losing streaks all the time. Richard Wiseman is a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and the author of Luck Factor. He’s studied more than 1,000 people and their luck, and ran a series of experiments he called “Luck School.” He confirmed that some people definitely have more luck than others, but also that unlucky people can be taught to bring more luck into their lives.
“What the work shows as a whole is that people can change their luck,” he says. “Luck is not something paranormal in nature. It’s something that we are creating by our thoughts and behaviour.” This is good news, as our brains don’t really want to believe in randomness. They like to think we have some control. According to David J. Linden’s book, “The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good,” it’s why craps players will throw dice less forcefully when they want low numbers. So, how to wrestle control of luck and make it work in your favour? Here’s how to improve your luck in gambling.
GO WITH YOUR GUT
BE OPTIMISTIC
YOUR SUPERSTITIONS AREN’T SILLY
DELUSION CAN BE YOUR FRIEND
Being deluded isn’t all bad. When people overestimate their abilities, it actually raises their utility by deluding them into believing they’re more able than they are. It also leads people to choose more challenging tasks. “Psychologists have found that moderate overconfidence is both pervasive and advantageous and that people maintain such beliefs by underweighting new information about their ability,” Bruce A. Weinberg said in a 2009 discussion paper.
Keep it in check, however. Extreme overconfidence isn’t the way to go, as it leads people to undertake tasks that are excessively challenging. And when you’re gambling, that kind of attitude can get costly quick!
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