The Psychology of How Luck Made the Self-Made Man

The following is part 2 of a two-part series on The Psychology and Mythology of The Self-Made Man. Part 1 can be found here.

Even as income inequality hits all-time highs, there still remains an implicit sense of American meritocracy. As political philosopher Michael Sandel points out in his book, The Tyranny of Merit, this is a perplexing feature of American culture. Studies reveal that compared to other developed countries, Americans are uniquely zealous in their belief in hard work. We believe that one’s place in life is determined by how much they want it. This fervent belief persists despite the fact that actual upward economic mobility in America is lower than it is in other developed countries.

This staunch, paradoxical belief in meritocracy directly impacts the way the general public sees the wealthy. NYU Professor Scott Galloway recently made this observation in his book, Post Corona: “The difficult thing about a meritocracy—or what we think is a meritocracy—is that we believe billionaires deserve it and that we should idolize them.”

This is also reflected in how rich individuals view themselves and their own accomplishments. It’s all that much more satisfying if you think that you deserved it. In fact, research suggests that people in higher income brackets are much more likely than those with lower incomes to say that individuals get rich primarily because they work hard. Wealthy people also are more likely to attribute their own success to hard work rather than to other circumstantial factors. The Quiz Show Game (discussed in part 1) looks more and more like real life.

The American belief in meritocracy persists despite decreasing levels of social mobility

Source: Photo by Jason Wong via UnSplash

And yet, the data suggests that the best predictors of wealth are the circumstances of one’s birth. Factors like the educational levels of your family, or intergenerational wealth, which by definition, the person has no control over.

For example, a 2019 report by George Washington University examined the predictors of educational outcome and career success. The single most important factor was the household income of the child’s family, much more so than the intelligence or intellectual ability of the child themselves. Put simply, the research suggests that it’s better to be born rich than to be born smart.

The wealth of the previous generation is profound and has long-lasting effects. In a striking demonstration of this, Guglielmo Barone and Sauro Mocetti tracked family wealth in Florence, Italy over several generations. What they found is that a family’s wealth in 2011 could be predicted by the wealth of their ancestors way back in 1427! It pays to be born into a rich family, even 600 years later.

Psychologist Robert Frank has spent decades studying the psychology of luck and has long noted the uncanny degree to which we neglect these purely circumstantial factors. As he writes in The Atlantic, “When talented, hardworking people in developed countries strike it rich, they tend to ascribe their success to talent and hard work above all else. Most of them are vividly aware of how hard they’ve worked and how talented they are. Yet their day-to-day experience provides few reminders of how fortunate they were not to have been born in, say, war-torn Zimbabwe.”

All in all, we have a natural tendency to take credit for the situational factors — both big and small, which have made our good fortunes possible.

How Recognizing the Role of Luck Impacts Our Psychology

Attributing success in this way is not only unfounded, but it also comes with downsides. The first is that this commits you to more general beliefs about society. If people are ultimately in full control of their destinies, fully responsible for their own wealth creation, then any individual who finds themselves in the bottom rungs of society must be there for a simple lack of effort. Why didn’t they just pull themselves up by their bootstraps like these other millionaires?

Recognizing the role of luck may be key to fostering generosity and gratitude

Source: Photo by Eric McClean via UnSplash

Scott Galloway echoes this sentiment: “Our idolatry of innovators blinds the winners to the structural advantages and luck they benefited from. And it fools us into thinking we are just a few lucky breaks from joining them. Financially successful people come to believe that someone who is delivering groceries at $14 an hour or cleaning the subway car deserves their economic fate." Believing in the “self-made man” also entails the belief in the “self-destructed man."

Clearly then, when these beliefs are held by policymakers, this demotivates them to address structural economic inequality. Secondly, there are personal, selfish reasons for understanding contextual factors, especially for those who are well off. A wealth of empirical evidence suggests that seeing ourselves as completely self-made, and neglecting the role of luck and circumstance, hinders feelings of gratitude for our own good fortunes.

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Research suggests that simply being reminded of the role of luck seems to lead people to feel more gratitude and to act more generously towards others. In one set of experiments, subjects were asked to remember a good thing that had happened to them (such as getting a good grade or meeting someone they admired). One group was instructed to list their personal attributes that contributed to the event, while the other was asked to list situational factors that contributed to it. Afterward, they were thanked for their participation in the experiment by being given a cash prize and were given the opportunity to donate some of it to charity.

The group that had been prompted to recall the situational factors which lead to their own good fortune donated 25% more to charity than the group that had just reflected on their personal characteristics. Reflecting on the role of luck in our own lives seems to lead us to be more generous to others.

Recognizing the important role of luck is not only a more comprehensive, it also may be good for us

Source: Photo via Marcos Paolo via UnSplash

The philosopher Julian Baggini perfectly distills this idea in the book, How The World Thinks: “There seems little doubt that the Western imagination has too much faith in our capacity to direct and control our own destinies. It is bad faith to deny or even play down the respect to which we are the products of our societies, epochs, families, localities. It is hubris to believe that all that we are, all that we have, and all that we believe is the result of our actions alone. In contrast, when we understand that there is a deep contingency in who we have become, a kind of modesty is fostered.”

Recognizing these situational factors provides us with a fuller picture of our good fortunes. This perspective isn’t just more comprehensive, it’s also good for us.

How Luck Made the Self-Made Man

Acknowledging the role of luck does not necessarily discount the role of hard work and diligence. But as we’ve seen, these latter traits alone aren’t enough. Even the hardest working individuals still owe their successes to luck, for being born into circumstances and situations where their hard work can matter. No one can take credit for the fact that they were born at a time and place which could recognize their gifts and abilities.

Even for the most hard-fought, bootstrapped success story, it shouldn’t take long to find something which enabled their success that was completely outside their control. And in turn, something to be grateful for.

The legendary cosmologist Carl Sagan recognized this interconnectivity in his own field. He remarked, “if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." What’s true of “self-made” apple pie may also be true of “self-made” billionaires.

This post also appeared on the consumer psychology blog MJISME