Further Effects of Lottery Odds on Responding

ABSTRACT

Lotteries (i.e., probabilistic bonus contingencies) are an established intervention in Organizational Behavior Management. Although common, there are many permutations of lotteries used in literature and they are often combined with other interventions. One key variable that may influence the effectiveness of lotteries are the odds that the lottery will pay out to those who earn entry. The current investigation evaluated a lottery intervention with varied payout chances (25%, 12%, 6%, or 3%). A 6% chance of winning was the lowest odds of winning where responding was reliably maintained across two participants. Implications of these results and future direction for research are discussed below.

KEYWORDS:

• lottery
• odds of winning
• raffle