An overview of cognitive mechanisms in pathological gambling

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the literature published on “cognitive biases” and gambling from 1960 till the present day. Typical cognitive biases are an individual’s irrational beliefs, cognitive distortions and erroneous perceptions about his or her ability to influence, control or predict the outcome of a chance event; these appear to be important for the maintenance of gambling related behaviour. Overall, the research suggests that cognitive factors are important in developing gambling addiction, but may be less important when gambling becomes habitual or regulated by automatic processes. Regardless of whether the behaviour is explained by reinforcement, needs or cognitive theories, it is still unclear why some individuals gamble more than others.