The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER Vol. 9(30) - It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game: Measuring arousal in response to WIN and LOSE scenarios

“There’s an old French proverb that says, ‘The pleasure in gambling is winning and losing.’” — Richard LaBrie, CNBC, 7/25/02. Gamblers often speak of the “thrill of the game” when discussing their reasons for playing. Many people assume that occasional winning stimulates this thrill and that gamblers can become “addicted” to the feelings associated with this thrill. Evidence suggests that some gamblers have trouble restraining themselves from repeatedly gambling (Potenza et al., 2003); however, new research suggests that an inability to limit gambling might be related to increased arousal from any gambling experience, regardless of winning or losing. A recent... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 9(29) - Truth, Lies and Collateral Informants

Special Note: This week’s WAGER was co-authored by Alexa Rubenstein, a summer intern at the Division on Addictions. She will be a sophomore at Harvard University next fall, where she is concentrating in psychology. Country singer Glenn Campbell recently explained his November DUI conviction for “extreme drunk driving,” by claiming that he “wasn’t really that drunk,” “just over-served” (Desert Morning News, 2004). Such seemingly inconsistent descriptions of one’s behavior are not uncommon. Inaccurate memory, cognitive biases, or attempting to give a socially desirable response can affect self-report such as Campbell’s. Unfortunately, in the absence of an independent gold standard, self-report... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 9(28) - Gambling in Canada

Gambling and problem gambling are issues that reach across national boundaries. Many nations have conducted surveys to learn more about the gambling habits of their citizens; among them are Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States as discussed in a WAGER 8(20) and in a paper by Howard Shaffer and his colleagues (Shaffer, LaBrie, LaPlante, Nelson, & Stanton, in press). In June 2004, Statistics Canada published a “Fact-sheet on gambling” in its monthly publication Perspectives on Labour and Income (Statistics Canada, 2004). (1) The figures and statistics included in the fact-sheet are based on... Read more →

The WAGER Vol. 9(27) - I knew that! The effect of reminders

The temptation to assume that the odds of a particular random-outcome event (e.g., obtaining heads when flipping a coin) change based on previous outcomes (e.g., a series of tails) is well-documented (see WAGER 9(19)). This cognitive distortion, called the gambler’s fallacy, is widespread and a part of the conventional wisdom. Even people who understand that random events are independent seem to forget it when they gamble. Research has shown that problem gambling is associated with these cognitive distortions (Ladoucer & Walker, 1996), so one method for targeting gambling problems includes limiting these irrational beliefs through safeguards built into games. This... Read more →