Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 31, 2025
08:24
The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
792
Winning and losing in online gambling: Effects on within-session chasing
Zhang Chen1, Roos Arwen Doekemeijer1, Xavier Noël2
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Plos One
|August 18, 2022
Summary
Loss-chasing in gambling is complex. This study found that while players may increase stakes after wins, they play faster after losses, indicating a potential urge to continue gambling.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Gambling Research
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Loss-chasing, the tendency to intensify gambling after losses, is a key feature of gambling disorder.
- Understanding within-session loss-chasing behaviors is crucial for identifying at-risk gamblers.
- Previous research has focused on stopping and staking decisions, with less attention on the speed of play.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate three behavioral expressions of within-session loss-chasing: stopping, staking, and speed of play.
- To examine how wins and losses influence these behaviors in real online gambling.
- To compare loss-chasing behaviors between high- and low-involvement player groups.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a large player-tracking dataset (>2500 players, >10 million rounds) from the online game Mystery Arena.
- Examination of decisions on when to stop, stake amounts, and speed of play following wins and losses.
- Categorization of players into high- and low-involvement groups based on operator data.
Main Results:
- After winning, players were less likely to stop and increased stakes, exhibiting win-chasing.
- After losing, both high- and low-involvement players increased their speed of play, suggesting loss-chasing.
- Wins and losses had a less pronounced effect on the speed of play for high-involvement players.
Conclusions:
- Loss-chasing manifests differently across gambling behaviors, with speed of play being a key indicator after losses.
- High-involvement players may exhibit reduced sensitivity to wins and losses, impacting their chasing behaviors.
- Further research is needed on diverse gambling products and clinical populations to generalize findings.
Related Concept Videos
01:04Social Facilitation
32.6K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
32.6K
01:08Timing and Consequences on Behavior
149
In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective.
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant...
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant...
149
01:14Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness
1.9K
Avoidance learning and learned helplessness are critical concepts in understanding behavioral responses to negative stimuli.
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
1.9K
02:45Self-Discrepancy Theory
18.4K
One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.
18.4K
01:05Instinctive Drift
304
Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...
304
01:52Regression Toward the Mean
6.5K
Regression toward the mean (“RTM”) is a phenomenon in which extremely high or low values—for example, and individual’s blood pressure at a particular moment—appear closer to a group’s average upon remeasuring. Although this statistical peculiarity is the result of random error and chance, it has been problematic across various medical, scientific, financial and psychological applications. In particular, RTM, if not taken into account, can interfere when...
6.5K