Does psychological reactance affect how people respond to government restrictions on sport gambling and daily fantasy sport?

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Author(s): Shapiro, Stephen L. ; Drayer, Joris ; Dwyer, Brendan

Journal: Sport Management Review

Year Published: 2020

Date Added: August 29, 2020

Gambling on professional sports and fantasy sports are both popular in the US. Recently, some types of sport gambling have been legalized in some states, while they are restricted in others. People with ‘high reactance’ tendencies have a stronger desire to perform an activity if it is restricted. The researchers showed some participants a scenario where sport gambling or daily fantasy sport would become legal in their state, and told others it would be illegal or discouraged. They then asked participants to rate their desire to gamble in the future. Participants generally had stronger desires to gamble if they were told it would be legal to do so. However, for daily fantasy sport, participants with high reactance had stronger desires to gamble when they were told it would be illegal or discouraged.

Citation: Shapiro, S. L., Drayer, J., & Dwyer, B. (2020). An examination of consumer reactance to daily fantasy sport and sport gambling regulatory restrictions. Sport Management Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2020.02.006

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2020.02.006

Keywords: fantasy sports ; psychological factors ; sports betting

Topics: Fantasy Sports ; Sports Betting

Conceptual Framework Factors: Psychological - Personality and Temperament ; Gambling Types ; Psychological Factors

Response Rate: Survey 1: N=748, Survey 2: N=300, (Total N=1048)

Study Design: Experimental: RCT (randomized controlled trial)

Geographic Coverage: United States of America

Study Population: Adults from the US who gamble with fantasy sports (N=748) and/or bet money on the National Football League (NFL) (N=300). 65% of participants were male

Sampling Procedure: The researchers recruited participants using Qualtrics survey panel for study 1 with fantasy sports consumers and Amazon Mechanical Turk for study 2 with NFL consumers. They screened potential participants to ensure they met the inclusion criteria (for survey 1, they had to have participated in fantasy sport in the past 12 months, and for survey 2 they had to have bet on the NFL in the past 12 months)

Study Funding:

No funding was declared.