To people who love gambling, the idea of heading to their favorite virtual or live gaming table makes their mouth water.
The fantasy of huge piles of chips or tons of credits flooding into their accounts sends mood-elevating endorphins shooting throughout their brains.
But how does it all start? What is the psychology of the gambler and of gambling?
The Psychology of the Desire to Gamble
While the actual process of gambling may take some sophistication, the desire to gamble is a simple, primal one.
Everything we learn to do in life, we learn through gambling.
As children, we take a gamble that we can touch a hot stove. When we get burned and lose that gamble, we learn not to do it again.
As teenagers, we may take a gamble on asking out a member of the opposite sex, or joining a sports team or taking a role in the school play.
If any of these things work out to our benefit, we will want to continue to do them again and again.
The Psychology of Conditioning
This is called conditioning, when a reward is paired with a behavior, encouraging a repetition of the behavior, and it happens everywhere in the animal kingdom.
You may remember the famous experiment with Pavlov’s dogs, where Pavlov rang a bell every time he provided food, until the dogs were conditioned to drool at the ringing of the bell even if no food was provided. Gambling works the same way.
We are rewarded financially when we get lucky gambling, so we continue to return to the tables even when we have walked away empty-handed.
The fantasy of huge piles of chips or tons of credits flooding into their accounts sends mood-elevating endorphins shooting throughout their brains.
But how does it all start? What is the psychology of the gambler and of gambling?
The Psychology of the Desire to Gamble
While the actual process of gambling may take some sophistication, the desire to gamble is a simple, primal one.
Everything we learn to do in life, we learn through gambling.
As children, we take a gamble that we can touch a hot stove. When we get burned and lose that gamble, we learn not to do it again.
As teenagers, we may take a gamble on asking out a member of the opposite sex, or joining a sports team or taking a role in the school play.
If any of these things work out to our benefit, we will want to continue to do them again and again.
The Psychology of Conditioning
This is called conditioning, when a reward is paired with a behavior, encouraging a repetition of the behavior, and it happens everywhere in the animal kingdom.
You may remember the famous experiment with Pavlov’s dogs, where Pavlov rang a bell every time he provided food, until the dogs were conditioned to drool at the ringing of the bell even if no food was provided. Gambling works the same way.
We are rewarded financially when we get lucky gambling, so we continue to return to the tables even when we have walked away empty-handed.
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