Risk Taking and the Affect it has on Gamblers Brent Kinney Research Proposal Dan Fawaz Literary Review In Michael F. Dunn's article, Risk-taking, Gambling, Speculation, and a Behavioral interpretation of Market Psychology, the author discusses risk-taking behavior and how it affects people, more specifically gamblers. Dunn has a well-researched article and makes some very interesting points. Dunn compares the nature of gamblers to the nature of a bird who has developed a conditioned response. The example he uses is the simple rewarding of a bird with a certain tasty food that elicits a certain type of behavior. He says that the people at the craps tables are no different. "The behavior may be either directed toward a goal or random in nature. If that action is followed by a reward, it will be repeated more often in the future" (Dunn). This article makes a good case for the fact that human's desires to gamble are very animalistic and are related to the simple conditioned response theory.
gambling
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gamble_porchHe states as his main hypothesis that with regard to gambling, the rewards will usually outweigh the punishment or consequences and keep the player at the tables longer. In other words, a person will continue to gamble even after big loss if that loss was preceded by a big win.
The next article is Risk-Enhancing Phenomena in Gambling by Eric K. Chan and Dr. G. Ron Frisch. Their article deals with and fights to support a theory called the "risky shift". Their hypothesis is that groups tend to choose riskier alternatives than individuals do. Meaning that your average Joe will be far more inclined to gamble more, take bigger risks, and ultimately be willing to lose more money if he is in a group rather than by himself. In order to study the facts...