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The bright lights, the bells and the whistles of the slot machines can influence the players at take more risks, a new study has revealed.
Researchers from University of British Columbia examined how the return of audiovisual information badociated with a reward promotes risk-taking and gambling.
The study was published in the journal JNeurosci and the results shed light on how slot machines can handle unhelpful gambling addictions.
Previously, studies had shown that for animals, sensory cues badociated with a reward increased risk-taking behavior, and researchers developed this theory to see if humans would react similarly to coupled sensory reward indices.
53 men and 78 women took part in the study and the researchers asked the participants to perform two lottery tasks involving both uncertainties and risks.
First, participants played a game used in many studies, the Iowa Gambling Task.
Each player participating in the gambling task of Iowa is presented with four games and can randomly choose a card in the game of his choice. Whenever a player clicks on a deck, he wins or loses money and the goal of the game is to win as much as possible.
The second test consisted of a two-choice lottery and, for each task, the participants played with a personalized version that included one audiovisual return and another without a marker.
The researchers followed the eye movements as the participants completed the tasks and found that the audio-visual feedback signals increased risky decision-making.
Participants were also more engaged when there were sensory cues badociated with high rewards and less sensitive to the chances of winning the tasks.
Risk behaviors and dependence go hand in hand, and the study shows the importance of audio-visual signals in promoting choice and gambling.
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By Kay Vandette, Earth.com Editor
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