Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Temporal Discounting Predicts How People Gamble On A Slot Machine, Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Joanna M. Marino, Joanna M. Marino, F. Richard Ferraro

Analysis of Gambling Behavior

The gambling research literature suggests that temporal discounting may be as-sociated with problem gambling, but research has not demonstrated that rates of discounting predict differences in actual gambling behavior. Thirty eight indi-viduals of different ages and backgrounds were recruited to complete several questionnaires, including a delay-discounting task. They were then given $10 in tokens with the opportunity to gamble on a slot machine. How steeply partici-pants discounted the delayed (hypothetical) monetary rewards was a significant predictor of they gambled. Gender, age, and reported annual income were not significant predictors. To our knowledge, these data are the first to demonstrate that …