The Effects of Realistic Reward and Risk on Simulated Gambling Behavior

Abstract

Laboratory studies on gambling may not represent an accurate analog of actual gambling behavior because they typically fail to model a meaningful level of risk and reward that is given in real-world settings. The current study sought to address this problem. One hundred and twenty college students were given the opportunity to bet valued experimental credits required for passing an introductory psychology course on the outcome of a videotaped horse race while their heart rate was monitored. Of those, 67 decided to wager, whereas 53 did not. Individuals who wagered course credits demonstrated a larger increase in heart rate and reported more subjective excitement during the race compared to individuals who did not bet. While the bettors' heart rates remained elevated after the end of the race, reports of subjective excitement depended on whether individuals had won or lost their wager. Significant gender differences and differences in personality were also found between the groups of bettors and nonbettors. These findings demonstrate that arousal in response to gambling is related to the potential for both risk and reward.

Does Size Really Matter? A Review of the Role of Stake and Prize Levels in Relation to Gambling-Related Harm

“…Arousal 6 has been reported as an important motivational factor (Lee, Chae, Lee & Kim, 2007;Lloyd et al, 2009;Parke et al, 2012;Platz & Miller, 2001;Wardle et al, 2010), and reinforcer of (Boyd, 1976;Brown, 1986, Lloyd et al, 2009Rockloff & Dyer, 2006;Wulfert et al, 2005;Wulfert, Franco, Williams, Roland & Maxon, 2008) gambling participation. There is also evidence that the role of arousal may be moderated by individual differences (Anderson & Brown, 1984;Coventry & Brown, 1993;Seifert & Wulfert, 2011;Studer & Clarke, 2011) and player choice afforded in the gambling activity (Studer & Clarke, 2011).…”

Does context matter? A multilevel analysis of gambling settings among undergraduates

“…To understand gambling-related influences on a student requires several dimensions of a student's life to be examined, including the individual (Barnes, Welte, Hoffmann, & Tidwell, 2010;Ellenbogen, Jacobs, Derevensky, Gupta, & Paskus, 2008;Huang, Jacobs, & Derevensky 2010, 2011King, Abrams, & Wilkinson, 2010;Martens et al, 2009;Seifert & Wulfert, 2011), the interpersonal (King et al, 2010) and the student's community and society as a whole (Foster, Neighbors, Rodriguez, Lazorwitz, & Gonzalez, 2014;Lee, 2013;Moore et al, 2013). A largest number of these studies have concentrated on student gamblers' motivations and psychiatric profiles (Atkinson, Sharp, Schmitz, & Yaroslavsky, 2012;Cummins, Nadorff, & Kelly, 2009;Ginley, Whelan, Meyers, Relyea, & Pearlson, 2014a;Ginley, Whelan, Relyea, Meyers, & Pearlson, 2014b;Ginley et al, 2015;Lee, 2013;Martin et al, 2010;Quinlan, Goldstein, & Stewart, 2014;Seifert & Wulfert, 2011;Thrasher, Andrew, & Mahony, 2011;Wu & Tang, 2012).…”

“…A largest number of these studies have concentrated on student gamblers' motivations and psychiatric profiles (Atkinson, Sharp, Schmitz, & Yaroslavsky, 2012;Cummins, Nadorff, & Kelly, 2009;Ginley, Whelan, Meyers, Relyea, & Pearlson, 2014a;Ginley, Whelan, Relyea, Meyers, & Pearlson, 2014b;Ginley et al, 2015;Lee, 2013;Martin et al, 2010;Quinlan, Goldstein, & Stewart, 2014;Seifert & Wulfert, 2011;Thrasher, Andrew, & Mahony, 2011;Wu & Tang, 2012). For example, Quinlan et al (2014) found that coping gambling motivations positively predicted if an individual would gamble alone, while social gambling motivations negatively predicted gambling alone and positively predicted gambling with friends.…”

The Relationship Between Stress and Motivation in Pathological Gambling: a Focused Review and Analysis

“…The potential for a meaningful (rather than token) loss has been cited as a critical feature of gambling that is missing from most experimental models [58]. Evidence from healthy subjects seems to support this possibility: College students who wager course participation credits on the outcome of a videotaped horse race display greater elevations in HR and subjective excitement than students who choose not to wager (although self-selection may contribute to this difference) [59]. In the absence of risk, both a generic arousing stimulus (e.g., videotape of a roller coaster ride) and a gambling-related stimulus (e.g., videotape of winning at gambling) evoke craving to gamble in active PG subjects but not in abstinent PG subjects or controls [60].…”