'Lucky Girl Syndrome' is TikTok’s new manifestation technique - but does it have a dark side?

'Lucky' has become a buzzword of late. TikTok, in particular, is rife with videos of young women proclaiming the life-affirming benefits of telling the universe how lucky they are.

Billed as a new way of manifesting your goals, 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' ultimately encourages you to believe you have the power to make real the good things you imagine for yourself. Put simply, you repeatedly tell yourself everything will work out in your favour. You are the luckiest person. Et voila, you have 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' and by some divine intervention you will be rewarded with that pay rise or marriage proposal.

The hashtag #luckygirlsyndrome already has 437 million views and counting, but is there a dark side to this way of thinking? The easy answer is: it depends who you ask.

Related: Reckless abandon: Why risk-taking could actually be good for you

There’s widespread consensus that positive affirmations in themselves are a good thing. Dermatologist Dr Howard Murad believes positive affirmations are not only beneficial for your mental health but also come with a surprising side effect.

His Inspirations app sends you a daily affirmation to repeat when applying products like the Hydration Hydro-Dynamic Ultimate Moisture ('Why have a bad day, when you can have a good day?' is a favourite). In a clinical study conducted on 40 patients, he found that after just four weeks of reading note cards with positive statements and journaling thoughts, they scored lower blood pressure and stress levels and higher arounds of skin hydration.

We are also, generally-speaking predisposed to negative thoughts, so believing that good things happen may open you up to more positive experiences. "Lucky Girl Syndrome uses a really commonly applied psychological tool that involves taking over the stories in our mind in order to help us to dictate how we feel and act," says psychotherapist Jordan Vyas-Lee.

"Keeping a positive narrative is useful because the brain works by shortcuts and we can in some way manipulate them," he continues. "With an affirmative mindset, we might be more likely to notice opportunity in our environments and be better at dismissing irrelevant stimuli." We may also avoid debilitating negative thought cycles, he adds.

Related: Dear Little Lover Heart: This is how to stop overthinking

But here's the thing: these experiences are not necessarily down to luck. First, there’s a degree of privilege implicit in the idea that luck guarantees good things will happen to certain people. Believing it is to ignore the fact that systematic inequalities and bias exist in the world.

"'Lucky Girl Syndrome' does not represent a quick life hack, either," says Vyas-Lee. "There is no evidence for a magical effect like bringing goals to life simply by thinking about them."

Another issue to consider is that good and bad feelings are important, as is learning to adapt your responses to each. "This helps us to build emotion regulation skills, be socially attuned and ensures we remain authentically in touch with ourselves – all of which leads to better psychological health," notes Vyas-Lee. "'Lucky Girl Syndrome' in many ways represents the opposite of emotional flexibility by asking us to dismiss naturally occurring feelings in favour of a rigid come-what-may storyline."

Bottom line: can 'Lucky Girl Syndrome' ever work? For most, it's likely to fail and will open you up to disappointment if things don’t go your way, says Vyas-Lee. "People hoping for a freebie happiness fix will likely experience deflation."