The Luck Factor by Dr Richard Wiseman, published by Century, priced £9.99, is available now

Can there really be such a thing as luck? And can it favour some people while ignoring others? According to psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor, the answer to both questions is a resounding yes.

"There are celebrities who have become famous because of a stroke of good luck."

Mel Gibson had a lucky break that kick-started his career. The night before his audition to play movie tough guy Mad Max, Gibson was beaten up in a street attack. He turned up looking tired and scarred and the rest, as they say, is history.

On the other hand there are those who are apparently dogged by bad luck. Wiseman says anyone can take steps to change their luck for the better by altering their approach to life. He studied the lives of 400 of the luckiest and unluckiest people he could find using psychometric questionnaires, laboratory experiments and extensive interviews.

"Lucky people are good at spotting opportunities and taking advantage of them, whereas unlucky people would either not notice them or be more wary of taking the risk to act on an opportunity."

People who make decisions based on intuition tend to have better luck than those who ignore their gut instincts. Lucky people are more optimistic and go through life expecting that their good fortune will continue. This has the effect of influencing their behaviour so that their expectations are fulfilled.

Some people have the ability to turn bad luck into good luck. Of course, bad things happen to everyone, no matter how lucky in life they may appear to be, but reacting to them positively - by imagining how things could have been worse, for example - helps them soften the emotional impact and take control of the situation.

By pinpointing the principles that lie at the heart of a happy life, Wiseman developed a series of exercises for unlucky people to use so they could become luckier.