In 1989, Mark Griffiths, PhD, studied the differences between two categories of players: those who played regularly and those who played occasionally.
To find answers, Griffiths used the author’s “Thoughts Out Loud” technique: subjects had to pronounce all the thoughts that came to them during the game.
As a result, Griffiths identified six factors that distinguish people who gamble regularly from those who do not gamble regularly.
🕹️ People who play regularly believe that they can control random events, including the results of playing slot machines.
🕹️ Players explain their victories by their own skill, and their failures by external factors.
🕹️Players find trends that supposedly govern the gameplay. Specifically, they believe that the probability of winning increases as the number of losses increases. If you get “heads” five times, you should definitely get “tails” on the sixth time.
🕹️The gameplay becomes overgrown with superstitions over time. For example, some players believe that they should roll the dice softly to get a lower number.
🕹️ Players remember their wins, but forget about their failures.
🕹️Those who play regularly count only their victories: they don’t care how many times they lost and whether luck really “loves” them more than other players, as a percentage.
