No regrets? Mood and the anticipation of emotions in problem gambling

Abstract

To minimize the possibility of experiencing regret over the outcome of a decision, people take into account their anticipated regret when evaluating their options before making the decision. The present study examined the accuracy of regret anticipation in the context of gambling behaviour. Using a sample of 82 community gamblers, the study tested whether the gap between anticipated and actual regret is different for social gamblers and problem gamblers. The effects of mood and selected personality factors on the anticipation of regret were also investigated. The results revealed that problem gamblers committed a larger error in predicting regret than social gamblers. Frustrated mood was found to affect the anticipation error of social but not of problem gamblers.

Keywords:

• problem gambling
• risk taking
• behaviour
• emotion
• pathological gambling