The findings may help to explain why some treatment options for problem gamblers often don’t work, the researchers say.<\/p>\n For the study, recently published in Frontiers in Psychology<\/i>, scientists from McMaster University, the University of Lethbridge and Liverpool John Moores University examined how gamblers made decision after they won or lost.<\/p>\n They found that, like our ancestors, the gamblers relied on their past experiences to predict what might happen in the future<\/strong>. But in games of chance where the outcome is completely random, this strategy doesn’t work.<\/p>\n “If you are tossing a coin and it turns up heads five times in a row, we have this strong feeling that it will turn up tails on the sixth try<\/strong>,” explains Jim Lyons, an associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and lead researcher on the project. “But the chances are still exactly 50-50.”<\/p>\n “The results of our work suggest, perhaps for the first time, that certain aspects of problem gambling behaviour may be related to hard-wired, basic neurobiological factors related to how we direct our attention,” he says.<\/p>\n Researchers conducted two experiments to test their theory.<\/strong><\/p>\n First, participants were asked to observe two targets being illuminated in random sequence. The researchers then gave them money to bet on which target would be illuminated.<\/p>\n Participants maintained the amounts of their bets regardless of whether they won or lost<\/strong>. But in instances where they won, they were more likely to move their bets to the other target for their next wager.<\/p>\n In a second experiment, participants undertook the same test with a partner.<\/strong> Like the first experiment, players maintained the amount of their bets regardless of whether they won or lost. If their partner correctly guessed a target, they were more likely to move on to the next target when their turn came.<\/p>\n Dan Weeks, a psychology researcher at the University of Lethbridge, says humans have evolved to modify their behaviour based on what they experience in the context of their location.<\/p>\n “Humans make rational decisions on a day-to-day basis based on experience. Think about someone picking apples in an orchard. Once the apples from the first tree are picked, it is a rational decision to move on to the next tree,<\/strong>” he says.<\/p>\n “These are also important findings because they suggest that, at least in some cases, these behaviours might be resistant to current behavioural intervention strategies<\/strong>,” says co-author Digby Elliott, professor of motor control and behavioural neurosciences at Liverpool John Moores University and professor emeritus at McMaster.<\/p>\n Next, the team plans to examine how this sort of behaviour may change as we age, since evidence suggests problem gambling can be particularly acute in the elderly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the McMaster University press release via EurekAlert!: New research from an international team of scientists suggests evolution, or basic survival techniques adapted by early humans, influences the decisions gamblers… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6],"tags":[21,42,127,28,52,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11735,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11617\/revisions\/11735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Gambling\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Gambling.jpg\")
New research from an international team of scientists suggests evolution, or basic survival techniques adapted by early humans, influences the decisions gamblers make when placing bets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n