Born under a lucky star?

This paper suggests that people can learn to behave in a way which makes them persistently unlucky or lucky. Learning from one's own experience, as it reinforces a few lucky or unlucky outcomes in early periods, will lead them to repeatedly make choices that lead to lucky or unlucky outcomes. In this situation, people have reasonably learned to behave as they do and their behavior is consistent with their experience. The lucky ones were not “born under a lucky star”; they learned to be lucky.

Research highlights▶ We study a simple model of learning in an interactive situation. ▶ Learning from one's experience reinforces a few outcomes in early periods. ▶ As a result people then learn to make systematically lucky, (or unlucky) choices. ▶ The lucky ones were not “born under lucky star”; they learned to be lucky.