Key to a sunnier outlook on life

Your view on luck can make a big difference in your happiness, reveals a study in the journal Current Psychology. When researchers had 844 participants fill out surveys measuring happiness, personal characteristics and beliefs about luck, they found that subjects who saw luck as good fortune at play were happier than those who thought of luck as something more like fate—a force outside their control. The authors explain that the latter idea makes you feel as if you have no power over your life, whereas the notion of personal luck—like the feeling you get when thinking about lucky breaks and silver linings—is tied to hope and positivity.