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Luckiest People Born in This Month
 The luckiest people in the world are born in May. The unluckiest, or at least the people with the most negative view of their lives, are born in October.
That's the word from researchers at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom who used the Edinburgh International Science Festival to conduct a poll of 40,000 visitors to determine if people born at certain times of the year consider themselves luckier than others, reports the BBC News Online.
But the reality is that being lucky may be nothing more than having a sunny, optimistic outlook.
The study: Led by Richard Wiseman, the researchers asked the participants to give their birth dates and to rate the degree by which they considered themselves lucky or unlucky.
The results: Half the people who were born in May considered themselves lucky, while this figure dropped to 43 percent for those with October birthdays. There was also a clear divide between seasons. People born from March to August considered themselves to be luckier than those born from September to February.
What does birth month have to do with luck? Wiseman speculates that people born in the spring and summer are exposed from birth to the warm, sunny summer months, while those born in the fall and winter are first exposed to cold, cloudy days. The BBC News notes that Wiseman's fellow researcher, Jayanti Chotai of Umea University in Sweden, has previously shown that people who are born in the winter are less likely to seek out novel experiences. "The environmental factors around the birth period, like exposure to sunshine and temperature, could all influence the body's biological systems, with effects extending into adulthood," Chotai told the BBC.
That feeling of being lucky could also be due to differences in the way parents interact with their babies during the summer and winter. "The good news for winter-borns is that people can improve their luck by being more optimistic and making the most of the opportunities that come their way," said Wiseman.
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Poll
