How to Avoid Gambling Addiction
When we make decisions on behalf of others, we are often more rational than when we make decisions about ourselves. This study used a financial gambling task to investigate whether framing effects in decision making are reduced in proxy decision making.
Participants were asked to
asked to make a series of choices between a pre-determined sure option and a risky gambling option of winning a portion of their initial wager, and the trial was presented as either a gain or a loss on that initial wager. In half of the trials, participants chose to make money for themselves, and in the other half they made money for another participant.
The framing effect was measured as risk aversion in the loss frame and risk aversion in the gain frame.
Results.
Significant framing effects were observed in both trials in which participants earned money for themselves and trials in which they earned money for others. However, these framing effects were substantially reduced when making decisions for others. Thus, a reduction in emotional involvement when the decision maker is not affected by the outcome of the decision seems to reduce the framing effect without eradicating it altogether.
Ziegler, F.V., Tunney, R.J. Who's been framed? Framing effects are reduced in financial gambles made for others. BMC Psychol 3, 9 (2015). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-015-0067-2
Summary
The results of this study show that people are less likely to get involved in wagering for the benefit of others because they are less likely to have an emotional bias and are more likely to make rational decisions. The results do not suggest a miraculous way to "win" in gambling, but rather a way to "not lose emotionally," which means that people are less likely to gamble until they lose too much and go bankrupt.
In gambling, winning and losing are predicted by various arguments, such as "the tide will turn," "you will win someday," and "probability theory," but when it comes down to it, we tend to surrender to our emotions rather than the "theoretical" part of the game.This technique can be used as a hint to make it easier to think theoretically, since the emotional aspect is greatly reduced when the game is not for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others.
Although it refers to the repetition of losses in gambling, it might be interesting to use it as a psychological technique to reduce the repetition of "losses" in daily life.
