IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intgms/v12y2012i3p295-307.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Affective forecasting in problem gamblers

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica Willner-Reid
  • Neil Smith
  • Henrietta Bowden Jones
  • Andrew K. MacLeod

Abstract

Affective forecasting refers to the process of predicting emotional reactions to future events. It plays an important role in decision making, but is also prone to errors, such as the 'impact bias': a tendency to overestimate the intensity of future reactions. The impact bias has been considered evolutionarily adaptive, as it performs a protective function in motivating people to avoid risky behaviour. Affective forecasting may be qualitatively different in a risk-taking population such as problem gamblers (PGs). In particular, PGs may fail to show the impact bias. This study was the first to examine affective forecasting in PGs. PGs (N = 25) and controls (N = 29) were asked to predict how they would feel after completing a guessing task. As hypothesized, controls exaggerated how bad they would feel after losing at the task, whereas PGs accurately predicted their reactions. Encouraging PGs to focus on anticipated emotions may be a novel target for treatment interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Willner-Reid & Neil Smith & Henrietta Bowden Jones & Andrew K. MacLeod, 2012. "Affective forecasting in problem gamblers," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 295-307, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:12:y:2012:i:3:p:295-307
    DOI: 10.1080/14459795.2012.671841
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14459795.2012.671841
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14459795.2012.671841?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:12:y:2012:i:3:p:295-307. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIGS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.