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Description
Winner, 2023 William James Book Award, American Psychological Association Division 1 in General Psychology
Most of us, no matter how rational we think we are, have a lucky charm, a good-luck ritual, or some other custom we follow in the hope that it will lead to a good result. Is the idea of luckiness just a way in which we try to impose order on chaos? Do we live in a world of flukes and coincidences, good and bad breaks, with outcomes as random as a roll of the dice—or can our beliefs help change our luck?
What Are the Chances? reveals how psychology and neuroscience explain the significance of the idea of luck. Barbara Blatchley explores how people react to random events in a range of circumstances, examining the evidence that the belief in luck helps us cope with a lack of control. She tells the stories of lucky and unlucky people—who won the lottery multiple times, survived seven brushes with death, or found an apparently cursed Neanderthal mummy—as well as the accidental discoveries that fundamentally changed what we know about the brain. Blatchley considers our frequent misunderstanding of randomness, the history of luckiness in different cultures and religions, the surprising benefits of magical thinking, and many other topics. Offering a new view of how the brain handles the unexpected, What Are the Chances? shows why an arguably irrational belief can—fingers crossed—help us as we struggle with an unpredictable world.
Winner, 2023 William James Book Award, American Psychological Association Division 1 in General Psychology
Most of us, no matter how rational we think we are, have a lucky charm, a good-luck ritual...
Winner, 2023 William James Book Award, American Psychological Association Division 1 in General Psychology
Most of us, no matter how rational we think we are, have a lucky charm, a good-luck ritual, or some other custom we follow in the hope that it will lead to a good result. Is the idea of luckiness just a way in which we try to impose order on chaos? Do we live in a world of flukes and coincidences, good and bad breaks, with outcomes as random as a roll of the dice—or can our beliefs help change our luck?
What Are the Chances? reveals how psychology and neuroscience explain the significance of the idea of luck. Barbara Blatchley explores how people react to random events in a range of circumstances, examining the evidence that the belief in luck helps us cope with a lack of control. She tells the stories of lucky and unlucky people—who won the lottery multiple times, survived seven brushes with death, or found an apparently cursed Neanderthal mummy—as well as the accidental discoveries that fundamentally changed what we know about the brain. Blatchley considers our frequent misunderstanding of randomness, the history of luckiness in different cultures and religions, the surprising benefits of magical thinking, and many other topics. Offering a new view of how the brain handles the unexpected, What Are the Chances? shows why an arguably irrational belief can—fingers crossed—help us as we struggle with an unpredictable world.
Advance Praise
"Blatchley provides a colorful and accessible look at the fascinating nature of luck. Focusing on the human side, the neuroscientific and psychological aspects, she explores what luck is and the role luck plays in our lives."
--David Hand, emeritus professor of mathematics and senior research investigator, Imperial College London, and author of The Improbability Principle
"Blatchley provides a colorful and accessible look at the fascinating nature of luck. Focusing on the human side, the neuroscientific and psychological aspects, she explores what luck is and the role...
"Blatchley provides a colorful and accessible look at the fascinating nature of luck. Focusing on the human side, the neuroscientific and psychological aspects, she explores what luck is and the role luck plays in our lives."
--David Hand, emeritus professor of mathematics and senior research investigator, Imperial College London, and author of The Improbability Principle
The Chances Are Good That This Is A Solid Book. Blatchley does an excellent job of looking at the various reasons why we believe in luck, from the societal to the social to the psychological and even the biological. And she does it with enough precision to do justice to the mathematics involved, but with enough generality to be enjoyable to a non-mathematics-oriented public. Overall an excellent "popular science" level look at the subject at hand, and very much recommended.
Was this review helpful?
Amit V, Reviewer
It is a wonderful little read about luck. We say this word everyday, but we don't know how it works.
This book takes a deep and scientific take on the luck. It has wonderful stories. Four girls surviving in sea for weeks. A man surviving seven life threatening accidents. A lady winning multiple lotteries. A detailed explanation about brain and new research about luck.
It is a very good and insightful book about eternal human belief in something known as luck.
Was this review helpful?
Featured Reviews
Jeff (Old Account) S, Reviewer
The Chances Are Good That This Is A Solid Book. Blatchley does an excellent job of looking at the various reasons why we believe in luck, from the societal to the social to the psychological and even the biological. And she does it with enough precision to do justice to the mathematics involved, but with enough generality to be enjoyable to a non-mathematics-oriented public. Overall an excellent "popular science" level look at the subject at hand, and very much recommended.
Was this review helpful?
Amit V, Reviewer
It is a wonderful little read about luck. We say this word everyday, but we don't know how it works.
This book takes a deep and scientific take on the luck. It has wonderful stories. Four girls surviving in sea for weeks. A man surviving seven life threatening accidents. A lady winning multiple lotteries. A detailed explanation about brain and new research about luck.
It is a very good and insightful book about eternal human belief in something known as luck.
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