Diminishing loss sensitivity during risky decision-making among male individuals with gambling disorder

Gambling disorder (GD) poses severe impacts on both individuals and society. Impairment in risky decision-making is a key behavioral characteristic of GD, but the underlying cognitive processes of these deficits remain unclear.

A total of 100 male participants with GD and 59 healthy controls were recruited to complete psychological assessments and the Balloon Analog Risk Task. Since GD involved abnormal loss evaluation, we developed a novel cognitive model incorporating diminishing loss sensitivity and revealed the processes underlying the risk-taking behaviors with hierarchical Bayesian analysis.

Participants with GD exhibited stronger loss aversion (H1 = 50.00, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.325) but faster-diminishing loss sensitivity (H1 = 24.60, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.152), regardless of severity. The faster-diminishing loss sensitivity can explain the deficits in the overall performance of risky decision-making (H1 = 6.79, p = 0.009, η2 = 0.039; β = 206.81, 95% HDI [135.13, 278.49], t93 = 5.66, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.565). Overconfident prior belief (H1 = 8.58, p = 0.003, η2 = 0.050) and higher updating rate (H1 = 7.91, p = 0.005, η2 = 0.049) were observed among participants with GD. Slower diminishing loss sensitivity was negatively correlated with higher non-planning impulsiveness (R = -0.24, p = 0.015).

This research provides novel perspectives on cognitive processes underlying the risky decision-making of GD, highlighting the role of diminishing loss sensitivity during loss evaluation and its clinical implications, which inspire future research on assessment and therapy for GD.