Using a foreign language does not lead to more optimal gambling decisions

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Author(s): Muda, Rafal ; Walker, Alexander, C. ; Pienkosz, Damian ; Fugelsang, Jonathan A. ; Bialek, Michael

Journal: Journal of Gambling Studies

Year Published: 2020

Date Added: June 11, 2020

People often rely on intuitively appealing information when gambling. An example is unclaimed prize information. However, this information alone does not tell people about their chance of winning. The researchers explored if using a foreign language would help people rely less on unclaimed prize information when gambling. They did three experiments to test the effect of using a foreign language versus one’s native language in a scratch card game. Overall, there was no evidence that using a foreign language helped people to make more optimal decisions: people tended to prefer scratch cards with a higher number of unclaimed prizes.

Citation: Muda, R., Walker, A. C., Pieńkosz, D., Fugelsang, J. A., & Białek, M. (2020). Foreign language does not affect gambling‑related judgments. Journal of Gambling Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09933-6

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09933-6

Keywords: gambling ; language ; prize information ; scratch cards

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

Study Design: Experimental: RCT (randomized controlled trial)

Geographic Coverage: Poland

Study Population: Bilingual individuals living in Poland who also speak English (N = 409)

Sampling Procedure: Experiment 1: participants were recruited through an external research firm’s subject pool (n = 111; recruited 160 participants but excluded 49 from analyses for various reasons such as having at least one parent whose native language was English, self-reporting poor global proficiency in English, etc.) Experiment 2: undergraduate students from Maria Curie-Sklodowksa University (n = 154; recruited 238 participants but excluded 84 from analyses). Experiment 3: participants were recruited through an external research firm’s subject pool (n = 144; recruited 177 participants but excluded 33 from analyses).

Study Funding:

This study was funded by the Polish National Science Centre (NCN) under Grant PRELUDIUM 2018/29/N/HS6/02058 assigned to RM. Work done by MB was supported by NCN under Grant SONATA 2017/26/D/HS6/01159.