One way to get gamblers to gamble more responsibly is to give them personalized feedback about their gambling behaviour, including the amount of money spent. Past research has found that gamblers receiving personalized feedback go on to spend less money and time gambling than those who did not receive personalized feedback.
Providing information to gamblers about the amount of money spent gambling may result in cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance refers to a mismatch between attitudes and beliefs. For example, the mismatch between what gamblers have actually spent and what they think they have spent. To reduce cognitive dissonance, gamblers may change their behaviour, such as gambling less.
The current study explored changes in gambling behaviour by giving gamblers personalized information and asking whether the amount of money lost to gambling was (i) more than expected, (ii) about as much as expected, or (iii) less than expected. The researchers expected that gamblers who spent more money than they thought they had would experience cognitive dissonance and gamble less.
