{"id":6946,"date":"2021-10-12T15:52:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T15:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/?page_id=6946"},"modified":"2021-10-12T15:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T15:52:36","slug":"positive-mood-can-increase-risk-taking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/articles\/betting-psychology\/positive-mood-can-increase-risk-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"A Positive Mood Can Increase Risk Taking When Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"
There are numerous things that can have an effect on someone\u2019s mood. For some, the fact that the sun is shining will see them walk with a bit more bounce in their step. For others, the success of the football team that they support can put them in a positive frame of mind. Even something such as someone saying yes to going on a date can entirely alter the frame of mind of certain people. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that being in a good mood can alter the manner in which certain people approach risky situations.<\/p>\n
Studies show<\/a> that people that are in a happy mood are more inclined to take a larger risk than those that aren\u2019t. This is true in both young and old people, though young people are just as likely to take a risk if they are in a neutral mood as those in a happy one. Young people are also more likely to be guided by negative moods than older people, even though age was irrelevant when it came to how an approach to risk was dealt with. The question is, is it possible to avoid allowing risk to dictate how you approach betting?<\/p>\n Whilst it would be untrue to suggest that all psychologists feel the same way around the idea of risk taking and its link to mood, the reality is that the majority of those that have conducted studies into the matter say the same thing<\/a>: a person\u2019s mood can alter how they approach risk. Someone with a negative frame of mind is likely to be more conservative when it comes to whether or not to take a risk. Those in either a neutral mood or a positive mood had the same approach, which was to be slightly more risky in their approach.<\/p>\n Of course, there is a conversation to be had around the idea of what, exactly, a \u2018neutral\u2019 mood is. In theory it means that someone is neither in a good mood nor a bad one, but how often in life would you say you\u2019ve genuinely been neutral rather than leaning slightly one way more than the other? You can feel as though you\u2019re in a neutral mood before snapping at someone over something small, for example, or laughing at something that isn\u2019t really that funny. The idea of being \u2018neutral\u2019 is perhaps a false one in some situations.<\/p>\n What we do know, however, is that people who are in a good mood are definitely more likely to take a risk than those that are in a negative frame of mind. It is fair to say that that makes a degree of sense. If you\u2019re in a good mood then why wouldn\u2019t you think that things were going to go your way? Equally, if you\u2019re feeling as though everything is going against you then you\u2019re much less likely to take a risk, presuming that you\u2019ll end up on the losing side of any given situation and therefore wanting to avoid the possibility of that outcome.<\/p>\n The question that we\u2019re interested in answering is whether someone\u2019s mood can have a genuine effect on their gambling decisions. If someone is in a good mood and therefore more likely to be risky, will they have such an attitude when trying to win money? Equally, if someone is in a bad mood, does this naturally mean that they\u2019re going to be more conservative when betting? Perhaps the most crucial question of all when it comes to gambling and your mood is what you can do to avoid falling foul of how you feel.<\/p>\n There has been specific work into gambling, risk-taking and mood carried out by psychologists. In it, they discovered that mood and risk-taking is slightly different when gambling is involved. Known as the Mood Maintenance Hypothesis, the evidence suggests that people that are in a good mood are less likely to take a risk than those in a bad mood. It is believed that this is because they don\u2019t want to risk both their mood and their money when faced with a possible gambling decision, instead opting to maintain their good mood.<\/p>\n Using Cognitive Affective Slots Experiments<\/a>, psychologists showed that individuals tended to behave rationally across different mood states. They reflected real-world attitudes by continuing to gamble even when the odds were against them. It also discovered that \u2018when participants reported experiencing greater affect on winning trials, their subsequent risk-taking was reduced\u2019 . In other words, people that were in a good mood thanks to winning were less likely to take risks. This supported the idea of the mood maintenance hypothesis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another interesting find by psychologists looking into the link between mood and risk-taking is that entire cities can be affected by positivity. A city that enjoys a day or two of sunshine after a prolonged period of rain or the victory of a local sports team can lead to a change in mood of the city overall. As a result, people are more likely to do risky things, such as gamble, if the mood in the city is good. McGill University used social media<\/a> to measure a city\u2019s mood and then look at an increase in risk-taking within that city.<\/p>\n McGill University looked specifically at the city of Chicago and discovered that the mood of the city was often heavily linked to how the White Sox performed the night before. One of the things that they looked at was whether people bought more or fewer lottery tickets when there was no incentive to do so. They discovered that gambling increased by about 2.5% per person when the city was deemed to be in a good mood. This was similar to how individual people tended to react to being in a good mood or otherwise when taking risks.<\/p>\n The interesting thing about the work that we\u2019ve discussed so far is that people can choose to take risks when in a good mood, but then reduce the risks that they take within the method of risk that they\u2019ve chosen. What we mean by that is that people, like cities, might decide to gamble when they\u2019re in a good mood. That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they will then be more risky when it comes to their decision making during their time gambling, with some work even suggesting that people are less likely to take gambling risks when in a good mood.<\/p>\n Gambling, of course, is an inherently risky thing to do. Merely by choosing to gamble, someone is taking a risk that they might not otherwise take. That doesn\u2019t automatically mean that they will continue to take risks during the period of time that they\u2019re gambling. That being said, it\u2019s worth noting that moods are ever-changing. You could be in a good mood, decide to gamble and suddenly get into a bad mood because you\u2019ve lost a good chunk of your money. This might lead to you gambling more and your mood changing as a result.<\/p>\n Both moods and fortunes are fickle mistresses. Given the manner in which they are intrinsically linked, it is perhaps not a surprise to learn that a change in one can alter the other. Good fortune might put someone in a positive frame of mind, which might lead them to believe that they can\u2019t lose when gambling<\/a>.\u00a0 The outcomes from gambling<\/a> can in itself alter out moods, which can create a feedback loop.\u00a0 Often when we win people can feel superstitious<\/a> that ‘they are on a roll’ and feel they need to act<\/a> by placing more bets.<\/p>\n The winning of money might also lead someone to decide that they want to protect their newly won money as well as their good mood, so they begin acting in a more conservative manner<\/a> to how they were when winning.<\/p>\nWhat The Science Says<\/h2>\n
Mood And Gambling<\/h2>\n
Cities Act Differently<\/h2>\n
Choosing To Gamble But Not Take Risks<\/h2>\n