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> Mishra (S16)
GAMBLING AND RISK-TAKING: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN RISK-ACCEPTANCE AND VARIANCE PREFERENCE
Project Approved 2006-07
Mr. Sandeep Mishra (Principal Investigator)
Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge
The relationship of gambling to risk-taking and the determinants of both behaviors are investigated in the present study through the study of individual differences in various personal characteristics.
Status (Complete)
A total of 120 men and 120 women were recruited for the first phase of the study. Questionnaire data was collected on their propensity toward risky behaviour (measured as a stable personality trait). Within each sex, three representative groups were identified – high risk-takers, medium risk-takers, and low risk-takers. These representative participants were invited back to the lab and further measures of risk and gambling were collected from them; 59 males and 56 females returned to the lab and engaged in behavioural risk and gambling tasks.
Findings to date suggest that the instruments used to measure risk propensity in phase 1 share a latent factor that underlies all variables. A principal components analysis on the risk-as-personality measures Domain-specific risk taking scale, Retrospective behavioural self-control scale, Eysenck impulsiveness scale, and Zuckerman’s sensation seeking scale was conducted. One normally distributed factor explained a large portion of the variance in the measures of risk propensity as a stable personality trait. This “risk as personality” factor significantly correlated with other aspects of personality traits measured using the NEO-FFI, in expected directions: risk and openness to experience correlated positively, and risk and agreeableness correlated negatively, as did risk and conscientiousness.
Using this factor score, phase I participants were separated into three groups: high, medium, and low risk-takers. Participants that scored most representatively in those three groups participated in Phase II (20 males and 20 females from each group). Several primary research questions outlined in the study were answered in preliminary statistical analyses.
Peer-reviewed Publications:
Mishra, S., Lalumière, M. L., & Williams, R. J. (2010). Gambling as a form of risk-taking: Individual differences in personality, risk-accepting attitudes, and behavioral preferences for risk. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 616-621. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.05.032
Mishra, S., & Lalumière, M. L. (2010). You can’t always get what you want: The motivational effect of need on risk-sensitive decision-making. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(4), 605-611. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.12.009
Invited Presentations:
Why do people engage in risky behavior? (2010, February). Oral presentation for Womanspace Resource Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta.
Risk-sensitive decision-making in humans. (2009, June). Oral presentation for the Dan Otte Symposium, University of Lethbridge.
Conference Presentations:
Mishra, S., Lalumière, M. L., & Williams, R. J. (2010, March). Gambling as a form of risk-taking: Individual differences in personality, risk-accepting attitudes, and behavioral preferences for risk. Oral presentation at the 4th Annual Graduate Students Association Multidisciplinary Conference, University of Lethbridge.
Mishra, S., & Lalumière, M. L. (2009, May). You can’t always get what you want: The motivational effect of need on risky decision-making. Oral presentation at the 21st Annual Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference, California State University (Fullerton).
Mishra, S. (2008, May). You can’t always get what you want: The motivational effect of need on risky decision making. Oral presentation at the 3rd Annual Psychology Symposium, University of Lethbridge.
Mishra, S., & Lalumière, M. L. (2008, May). You can’t always get what you want: The motivational effect of need on risky decision making. Poster presentation at the 27th Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science, Banff, Alberta.
The Alberta Gaming Research Institute provides grant funding to support peer-endorsed academic investigations into many aspects of gambling research. The contents, recommendations, and findings of the associated research reports, posted on this website, represent the views of the researcher(s).
Last Updated: 09/10/08
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