The effects of near wins and near losses on self-perceived personal luck and subsequent gambling behavior
| dc.contributor.author | Wohl, Michael J.A. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Enzle, Michael E. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2006-06-20T20:51:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2006-06-20T20:51:20Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2003-03 | |
| dc.description | Reprinted from Journal of Experimental Social Psychology with permission from Elsevier. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Which person would be most likely to continue gambling? A person who has just experienced a big win or a person who has just experienced a big loss? The answer appears often to be whichever gambler feels personally luckier. Two experiments investigated how perceptions of luck, understood as a personal quality, are affected by near, but unrealized outcomes during a game of chance. In Experiment 1, a near big loss at a gambling game heightened perceptions of personal luck relative to a near big win, even though all participants actually won the same modest amount. In addition, participants who experienced a near big loss generated significantly more downward counterfactuals than did those participants in the near big win condition. Most importantly, differences in self-perceived luck influenced future gambling behavior. Participants who experienced a near big loss on a wheel-of-fortune wagered significantly more on the outcome of a subsequent game of roulette than did those participants who experienced a near big win. Experiment 2 extended these results by testing the possible influence of a different type of near outcome and by including a control group. The discussion focuses on the emerging picture of how people understand luck. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The research was supported in part by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship (#752- 2000-1333) to the first author, a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#410-92-0464) to the second author, and a research grant from the Alberta Gaming Research Institute to both authors. | en |
| dc.format.extent | 116252 bytes | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 184-191. | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/9907 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0022-1031 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/43237 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | en |
| dc.subject | gambling behavior | en |
| dc.subject | personal luck | en |
| dc.subject | self-perception | en |
| dc.subject.other | Institute Funded Reports | |
| dc.title | The effects of near wins and near losses on self-perceived personal luck and subsequent gambling behavior | en |
| dc.type | journal article |
