Individual Explanation - Cognitive Bias

Question 1

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 1

Gamblers believe there is a pattern in winning a gamble
Keren + Lewis - gambler fallacy - 2 types
-in roulette wheel is red come up 10 times, people think black landing will be due
-or think that it will land on red as think wheel is biased

Mood modification - lose critical thinking skills as think a 50/50 is not a 50/50

Question 2

Availbility heuristic

Answer 2

Become biased of outcome of gambling
-in news only winners are broadcasted in lottery
-millions of losers not shown

Real life
-slot machine close to eachother - if win = big sound
-other hear it and think it might be them, ignoring the losers

Salience - only think about winning ignoring the loss

Question 3

Sunk cost fallacy

Answer 3

Believes they have to be rewarded if spend a lot of money on a thing
Strough et al - if feel invested on gambling carry on investing + losing money
-feel if lost money only thing to do is to gain it back

Conflict - troubles prioritising health over gambling

Question 4

Evaluation - back by research

Answer 4

-Griffths - compare 30 gamblers + non
-record verbalisation during slot machines
-gamblers have more irrational verbalisation (12% more likely)
-‘I can feel it’s the next one’
-addicts do possess cognitive bias as cannot form rational thoughts - uses heuristics

But study has low sample size + jot consider some gamblers may have mental health

Question 5

Real life application

Answer 5

Griffths - use recording on gamblers for CBT treatment - Socratic questioning - highlight irrational thinking
-gamblers finds this useful in quitting

Question 6

Hard to predict behaviours using this approach

Answer 6

Griffths - National lottery number 13 appear on winner 3 times
-but some representative not picked 13 while other do
-explanation have conflict since cannot fully explain which cognitive bias different people have