Explanations for gambling addiction : cognitive theory

• Cognitive biases for explanations for gambling addiction:

  • Illusions of control
  • The Gamblers fallacy
  • The ‘near miss’ bias
  • The recall bias
• Cognitive biases for explanations for gambling addiction:

  • Illusions of control - overestimate personal ability to influence the outcome of random events
  • The gambler’s fallacy - expectations of imminent wins after losing streaks
  • The ‘near miss’ bias - nearly winning is encouraging for further play
  • The recall bias - remember or overestimate wins while forgetting or rationalising losses
• Key study: Cognitive bias in fruit machine gambling

  • Griffiths
  • Aim: to discover whether regular gamblers thought & behaved differently to non-regular gamblers when gambling playing fruit machines
  • 30 regular & 30 non-regular gamblers
  • Given £3 to spend playing a fruit machine & asked to verbalise their thoughts
  • Regular gamblers more likely to make irrational statements & saw ‘near misses’ as ‘near wins’
  • 26 of the regular gamblers believed success was due to skill
• Cognitive theory for explanations for gambling addiction AO3:

  • ✅ Research support - 80% of gambling verbalisations made by addicts are irrational - irrational beliefs sustain gambling habits
  • ✅ Implications for treatment - CBT
  • ❌ Methodological problems - relies on introspection which can lead to demand characteristics or social desirability bias - lacks internal validity
  • ❌ Cognitive biases may have a biological basis - the insula plays a role in the distorted thinking of gamblers. If damaged, people are immune to cognitive biases
• Cognitive theory for explanations for gambling addiction AO3:

  • ✅ Research support
  • ✅ Implications for treatment
  • ❌ Methodological problems
  • ❌ Cognitive biases may have a biological basis