Gamble with Your Head and Not Your Heart: A Conceptual Model for How Thinking-Style Promotes Irrational Gambling Beliefs

Dual process theory suggests that people use two processing systems to filter information and form judgments that direct a course of action: an intuitive and an analytic system. While the intuitive system is necessary for efficient and effective daily functioning, reliance on fast, intuitive thinking when gambling is likely to result in biased or flawed decision-making. Those who gamble tend to endorse an array of fallacious or irrational beliefs that contribute to risky decision-making and excessive gambling. This paper argues that gambling beliefs may be developed and reinforced through underlying cognitive mechanisms described by dual process theory. More specifically, gamblers tend to apply assumptions and theories developed based on their understanding of the natural world to artificial gambling contexts where such rules do not apply. As a result, gamblers develop biased interpretations and understandings for how gambling works, which tend to align with personal schemas, experiences and gambling motivations. These beliefs are used in future gambling contexts to inform decision-making. Gamblers are often unlikely or unwilling to reflect on the veracity of beliefs as they are often used to justify gambling behaviours. Educating gamblers on how they make decisions and encouraging them to think more analytically may help to reduce the strength with which erroneous beliefs about gambling are endorsed, resulting in safer gambling decisions.