If you are someone that has scrolled through TikTok recently, you might have already heard of the term ‘Lucky Girl Syndrome’.

By the end of January, the hashtag #LuckyGirlSyndrome has accumulated 150 million views on the app. The twenty-year old tiktoker Laura Galebe sparked this discussion, captioning her video “Let’s talk about The ‘Lucky girl’ Syndrome”. She tells her viewers that good things happen to her unexpectedly, is currently living the best life she can imagine, and advises them to be “as delusional as possible and believe that the things you want can come to you”. The coined term then received further attention with the two girls sitting in the car discussing their own experience of the syndrome.

There are two scientific explanations behind the lucky girl syndrome: the law of attraction and the psychological confirmation bias. The law of attraction is a philosophical theory that states that positive thoughts bring about positive results, and vice versa, while the latter is people’s tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with their existing beliefs: when a person talks about an occurrence of an event every day and it coincidentally happens, people tend to think that it is the result of the chanting.

However, not everyone likes the idea of Lucky Girl Syndrome. TikTok creator Allie heavily criticized the trend, calling it “toxic”, adding that people should not fail to recognize that the two girls are white, abled, and privileged. Another creator Melody Walker expressed similar opinions, saying that it is wrong to imply that one does meet expectations because he or she is not thinking positively.

New York University psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen notes that having positive mindsets can support current moods, but in the long term, pining for something out of the wish will hinder people to actually do something to pursue them. Instead, the WOOP strategy – Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan – she proposed back in 2014, is a more practical and viable approach.

TikToks discussing the Lucky Girl Syndrome.

The Lucky Girl Syndrome doesn’t seem like a new idea. Simply stated, it is the belief that having a positive mindset will tailor a person towards their own desires. Just like the Boomers emphasize “the power of positive thinking” and Gen X with “the secret”, Gen Z obsess over “Lucky Girl Syndrome”.

Positive outcomes of optimism and self-talks include better resilience, health, and mental well-being. Thinking positively is a common mindset people possess. It only matters to what extent an individual considers and relies on it.

Lucky Girl Syndrome, to some extent, is a social media fad; we are living in an ever-changing, informative era in which public interest rapidly switches from one fad to another. People might tend to urgently debate and be interested in a particular topic within a period of time, but move on and shift their focus in a matter of days.

Yet, when a subject goes viral, there must be several reasons behind the hype. As for Lucky Girl Syndrome, it spreads the idea of positivity and reminds us of the importance of thinking positively every day to make our lives better.

However, potential drawbacks in herd-following the belief exist. Slight exaggerations such as Lucky Girl Syndrome seem like another pathway to boast about oneself on social media without conveying any true meaning. It can even make you wonder if these people are convincing themselves and telling people that they are lucky when, in fact, no one really cares. More effort should be put into action to improve standards of living, not simply lying on couches and bearing a positive mind.

Lucky Girl Syndrome

Sources

InSight Scoop