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Well, lucky people could just be more naturally observant. It seems that would be a useful trait.

This is more about anxiety than luck. It seems the 'unlucky' volunteers had a higher level of anxiety and thus a decreased ability to detect opportunities.

Anxiety and stress can interfere in many activities.

Totally true. Anxiety saps all kinds of brain power.

I'm not so sure. I've found a certain level of anxiety can make me perform better at things. Complacency can be dangerous too in my experience.

True but anxiety tends to narrow focus and depending on what you are trying to accomplish it can either help or hurt.

Perhaps also more trusting/optimistic.

Ie, for the newspaper experiment, the message said there were 43 pictures but why should you trust it?

True, I would still count them after ssing the message

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