Psychology Faculty Work

Title

Laboratory Simulated Gambling: Risk Varies Across Participant-Stake Procedure

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2013

Publication Title

Journal of General Psychology

Volume Number

140

Issue Number

2

DOI

10.1080/00221309.2013.776509

Abstract

This study investigated whether risk taking on a laboratory gambling task differed depending on whether participants gambled with earned or experimenter-provided game credits. Participants made repeated choices between two options, one to wager game credits on a game that produced probabilistic gains and losses, and one to gain game credits with certainty. Choice was investigated across stake and no-stake conditions and condition order was counterbalanced across conditions. Risk taking was higher under stake than no-stake conditions, but only when stake conditions were experienced first. There was no effect on risk taking of the amount of the certain gain. Results are consistent with previous research showing that participant-stake procedures promote greater risk taking than procedures that allow participants to gamble with their own earnings, and also show that experience gambling with earned credits has an enduring effect on risk taking.

ISSN

0022-1309

First Page

130

Last Page

143

Link Out URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/00221309.2013.776509

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