Elpro Griffin

8/13/2019 Elpro Griffin

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By Aaron Griffin


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I wanted to test one of Richard Wisemans four

principles to see if lucky people really do payattention differently than unlucky people.

I conducted a study using employees of Jets

Pizza to see if there was a correlation between apositive attitude towards life and luckyoccurrences

Hypothesis not supported. I believe this to bedue mostly to flaws in the study.


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What makes lucky people lucky?

As discussed in Richard Wisemans book The LuckFactorthere are 4 basic principles that lucky peopletend to follow to make positive outcomes occurseemingly by chance.

One of these principles is to pay attention toopportunities that may provide positive chanceoutcomes. This is the principle I was most interested

in studying because if adjusting where attention isplaced has a significant effect on outcomes for thelucky, then essentially anyone can be lucky byreorganizing their attention.


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Wiseman conducted a study in which he gave

people that considered themselves lucky orunlucky newspapers and told them to countthe photographs in the newspaper.

Lucky people finished exceptionally quickerthan the unlucky people because there was anad on the 2nd page telling them Stop counting.There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.

About halfway through the newspaper was yetanother ad telling the participants to stopcounting and to collect a $250 prize.


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The unlucky people missed both ads because

they focused on counting pictures. So it wasconcluded that the lucky people were moreattentive to the ads because they were looking

for chance opportunities. (Wiseman, 2003.)


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I hypothesize that participants in a study that

rate themselves on a questionnaire to havepositive attitudes towards life will find slightlyhidden signs that offer a reward if sign is found

because their attention is organized in such away that allows them to notice opportunitiesfor positive events to occur.


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Participants

All Jets Pizza employees of the Fenton locationbesides myself totaling 26 participants.

19 Male, 7 Female

Ages ranging from 16 to 27 years old I used Jets employees because they were there for a

reason, to work. This means that their attention isalready directed.


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Procedure Step 1

Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed the participants positivity

towards life by giving positive statements such as Ialways expect the best outcomes for events that occur inmy life and asking them to rate the statement based onhow much they agreed with it (Likert-type scale). Ratingswere from 1 to 5 where 1= strongly disagree, 2=disagree,3=uncertain, 4=agree, and 5=strongly agree. (Knapp,2009)

I wrote the participants names on their questionnairesafter they were completed.

These surveys were collected over a one week period.


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Procedure Step 2

Signs were posted in 8 different locations of Jets Pizza inareas where employees worked. I made sure that this was done on a weekend because

weekends are busy. Typically all employees will haveworked over the course of the weekend.

The signs were kept slightly out of eye shot so thatsomeone with a careful eye might find them but not sohidden that they would never be found

If found, participants were to see a manager (myself orCera) to collect a reward which was a high five

When a participant found a sign, I recorded the numberof the location that it was found on their questionnaire

Signs said If found, please see Cera or Aaron forreward


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To measure amount of positivity or negativity

of participants, I counted ratings of 1 or 2 onthe scale as a -1 because this would shownegativity

A rating of 3 stood for uncertain so I countedit as 0 as it would be neutral

Ratings of 4 or 5 counted as +1 since they

showed agreement with the statements


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The scores on all the questionnaires using the

scoring method discussed ranged from -6 to+10

The mean for all questionnaires was +4.89


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Participants that found signs

Scores ranged from -6 to +9 The mean score was +4.73

Participants that did not find signs Scores ranged from -4 to +10

The mean score was +5.07


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11 participants found signs, 15 did not


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My hypothesis was not supported by the

results of my study. In order for my hypothesisto have been supported, the mean scoresshould have been higher for participants that

found the signs. The opposite was true. Scoreswere higher for those that didnt find signs.


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One problem that occurred during the study was

that once a person found a sign, they found all ofthem. And they also told people about themwhich might have contaminated results.

Citing these issues and some others had during the

study, the following alterations should be made ifthe study is to be repeated Dont make all the signs the same Once a person found

one, they knew what they were looking for

Change the signs to say If you find this, please bring it toa manager. This way the participant could be rewardedand could be told to keep quiet and not spoil it.


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Knapp, G. (2009). How to be Lucky.

Lecture given at a community college. All questions on questionnaire taken

from this lecture.

Wiseman, R. (2003). The Luck Factor(pp 2-3). Skeptical Inquirer. RetrievedApril 2, 2009

http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdfNot actually taken from book but from an article written by Wiseman forthe Skeptical Inquirer which summarized the book and his findings


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