The Deployment of Personal Luck: Sympathetic Magic and Illusory Control in Games of Pure Chance

Abstract

In three studies, the authors expand on Langer’s (1975) illusion of control model to include perceptions of personal luck as a potential source of misperceived skillful influence over non-controllable events. In an initial study, it was predicted and found that having choice in a game of chance heightened both perceived personal luck and perceived chance of winning. In additional studies, hypotheses were tested based on the proposition that luck perceived as a personal quality follows the laws of sympathetic magic. The results showed that participants acted as though luck could be transmitted from themselves to a wheel of fortune and thereby positively affect their perceived chance of winning. Results are discussed both in terms of the previously unexamined connection between illusory control and beliefs in sympathetic magic and as an extension of the illusory control model.

The effects of near wins and near losses on self-perceived personal luck and subsequent gambling behavior

“…For example, Wagenaar and Keren (1988) have shown that people conceptually distinguish between chance events and what we refer to as personal luck, with the former term capturing the situational aspect of random events, and the latter term capturing peopleÕs belief in a deployable personal (or dispositional) skill. Elsewhere, we have suggested that peopleÕs estimates of their personal luck are influenced by contextual variables (Wohl & Enzle, 2002). We predicted and found, in an illusion of control paradigm, that peopleÕs beliefs in personal luck were heightened when they were able to make choices relevant to a pure game of chance (selecting a lottery ticket) even though that choice had no causal connection to the outcome of the game.…”

“…Our prediction derives from the proposition that people understand luck as a personal quality (Darke & Freedman, 1997;Wohl & Enzle, 2002). Theories in social cognition generally approach luck as an aspect of the external world (e.g., Weiner, 1974).…”

Causality Illusion and Overconfidence in Predicting (Quasi)Stochastic Financial Events

“…Tato víra je tím silnější, čím více hráč cítí, že může mít kontrolu nad náhodnými událostmi. Kupříkladu subjekty, které si samy vybírají los, věří ve vyšší pravděpodobnost své výhry než lidé, kterým je los přidělen [Wohl a Enzle, 2002].…”

Subtyping Gambling Acitivities: Case of Korca City, Albania

“…Lotteries, scratch cards and slot machines are examples of the first category, whereas poker is an example of the latter. However, while exists a general structure of skill and chance, the distinction is undoubtedly blurred at the level of the game as many gamblers are known to play chance based games with the illusion of control [3]. Slot machine playing is generally acknowledged as involving no skill and leading to an inevitable loss of money.…”