People make better gambling-related judgements when information is presented visually rather than numerically

View Open Access Article View Snapshot Back to Search Results

snapshot summaries

Author(s): Walker, Alexander, C. ; Stange, Madison ; Dixon, Mike J. ; Koehler, Derek J. ; Fugelsang, Jonathan A.

Journal: Journal of Gambling Studies

Year Published: 2019

Date Added: August 31, 2019

To make good decisions, people must distinguish between useful and irrelevant information. When buying scratch cards, many people mistakenly believe that they have a greater chance of winning if there are more unclaimed prizes. The researchers tested if participants were still biased by the number of unclaimed prizes when they gave them useful information about their chances of winning (i.e., payback percentage). When the useful information was given as a number, participants based their decisions on the number of unclaimed prizes. However, when the useful information was given graphically as a star rating, participants used it to make better decisions.

Citation: Walker, A. C., Stange, M., Dixon, M. J., Koehler, D. J., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2019). Graphical depiction of statistical information improves gambling‑related judgments. Journal of Gambling Studies, 35(3), 945-968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09860-1.

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09860-1

Keywords: cognitive biases ; prize information ; scratch cards ; visual tools

Conceptual Framework Factors: Resources - Harm Reduction, Prevention, and Protection ; Gambling Resources

Response Rate: N/A

Study Design: Experimental: NRCT (non-randomized controlled trial)

Geographic Coverage: United States of America

Study Population: US residents who use Amazon Mechanical Turk and have a Mechanical Turk HIT approval rate of at least 95%.

Sampling Procedure: Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. They were recruited under the condition that they were US residents and had a Mechanical Turk HIT approval rating of at least 95%.

Study Funding:

This study was funded by Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.