Are you lucky?

This month's Scientific American Skeptic column discusses the merits of being lucky. Well, at least the merits of thinking you are lucky:

"Lucky people are far more satisfied with all areas of their lives than unlucky or neutral people," Wiseman reveals in his charming and insightful book, "The Luck Factor". Does this satisfied state of mind translate into actual life outcomes that someone might call lucky? It does. Here's how.

Wiseman gave subjects the "big five" personality scale, which measures "agreeableness," "conscientiousness," "extroversion," "neuroticism" and "openness." Although there were no differences between lucky and unlucky people on agreeableness and conscientiousness, Wiseman found significant differences for extroversion, neuroticism and openness.

Lucky people score significantly higher than unlucky people on extroversion. "There are three ways in which lucky people's extroversion significantly increases the likelihood of their having a lucky chance encounter," Wiseman explains: "meeting a large number of people, being a 'social magnet' and keeping in contact with people." Lucky people, for example, smile twice as often and engage in more eye contact than unlucky people do, which leads to more social encounters, which generates more opportunities.

Personally, I've never thought of myself as a lucky person. Hence, I try to plan things without factoring in too much luck. Simple. Then again, I suppose I'm lucky this blasted iMac hasn't blown up in my face...yet.