Cognitive Control and Criminogenic Cognitions in South Asian Gamblers

It has been suggested that criminogenic thinking is likely to be a correlate of gambling. The primary aim of the current study was to assess whether gamblers and non-gamblers differ on measures of cognitive control and criminogenic cognitions. The secondary aim was to assess the association between cognitive control and criminogenic cognitions amongst gamblers and non-gamblers. The sample included 159 male participants (78 gamblers and 81 non-gamblers) with an age range from 15 to 25 years (M = 20.07, SD = 2.77), recruited from different snooker clubs in Lahore, Pakistan. Participants were individually administered color word interference test (CWIT) taken from Delis Kaplan executive function system, Lie Bet Questionnaire, and Criminogenic Cognition Scale in order to assess cognitive control, gambling, and criminogenic thinking patterns respectively. Raw scores of completion time and number of errors on four conditions of CWIT were taken as the measures of cognitive control. Results from repeated measure ANOVA indicated that gamblers committed significantly more errors on cognitive control measure and scored significantly higher on two criminogenic cognition subscales including notion of entitlement and insensitivity to the impact of crime. Furthermore, age and education were also found to be significant covariates of specific criminogenic cognitions and cognitive control respectively. Results from correlational analyses showed that error measure, but not the time measure, of cognitive control was significantly and positively correlated with short term orientation, notion of entitlement, negative attitude toward authority, and insensitivity to the impact of crime. Implications of the findings are suggested along with future directions.