Betting Decisions Influenced by Human Evolution Suggests a Study

Researchers in a recent study suggests that a gambler’s decision is influenced by human evolution and techniques adopted by ancients to survive. Scientists from McMaster University, the University of Lethbridge and Liverpool John Moores University based on their experiments note that gamblers often place their bets based on previous outcomes, which is a wrong strategy in games whose results are random.

Researches initially asked the individual participants to observe two targets, which were randomly illuminated and then asked to bet on the target that would next be illuminated. Researchers observed that whenever the participants won they were more like to place their bet on the nest target in their next wager.

In the second experimental setup, the participants were paired with partners and it was found that when one participant won the bet then the partner was more likely to place the bet on the other target.

Hence, this decision making is influenced with past experience. The finding provides more insight to problem gambling and could be used to treat problem gambling in a more efficient manner.

The authors plan to further their research on how this behavior changes with age.

Source-Medindia