WATCH: Why luck is a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to this expert

Around the New Year and Lunar New Year, luck rituals around the world are performed to bring in the good stuff and banish the bad stuff. But what role does luck play in our everyday lives? Do people actually have the power to make themselves lucky?

Richard Wiseman, who wrote a book about luck and is a psychology professor at University of Hertfordshire, said that he’s found there are such things as lucky and unlucky people. PBS NewsHour’s Nicole Ellis spoke with Wiseman in the animated conversation above.

“We worked with exceptionally lucky and unlucky people [in our research],” he said. “There are huge differences in their lives.”

This video was produced by Casey Kuhn, Nicole Ellis, Megan McGrew, Yasmeen Alamiri, and Julia Griffin. Video courtesy Reuters.

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