Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gambling, Risk-Taking, and Antisocial Behavior: A Replication Study Supporting the Generality of Deviance

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Gambling Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Research suggests that high frequency gambling is a component of the “generality of deviance”, which describes the observation that various forms of risky and antisocial behavior tend to co-occur among individuals. Furthermore, risky and antisocial behaviors have been associated with such personality traits as low self-control, and impulsivity, and sensation-seeking. We conducted a replication (and extension) of two previous studies examining whether high frequency gambling is part of the generality of deviance using a large and diverse community sample (n = 328). This study was conducted as a response to calls for more replication studies in the behavioral and psychological sciences (recent systematic efforts suggest that a significant proportion of psychology studies do not replicate). The results of the present study largely replicate those previously found, and in many cases, we observed stronger associations among measures of gambling, risk-taking, and antisocial behavior in this diverse sample. Together, this study provides evidence for the generality of deviance inclusive of gambling (and, some evidence for the replicability of research relating to gambling and individual differences).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arneklev, B. J., Grasmick, H. G., Tittle, C. R., & Bursik, R. J, Jr. (1993). Low self-control and imprudent behavior. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 9, 225–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bagby, R. M., Vachon, D. D., Bulmash, E., Toneatto, T., Quilty, L. C., & Costa, P. T. (2007). Pathological gambling and the five factor model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 873–880.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blais, A., & Weber, E. U. (2006). A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale for adult populations. Judgment and Decision Making, 1, 33–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaszczynski, A., & McConaghy, N. (1994). Antisocial personality disorder and pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 10, 129–145.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blaszczynski, A., McConaghy, N., & Frankova, A. (1989). Crime, antisocial personality and pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 5, 137–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaszczynski, A., Steel, Z., & McConaghy, N. (1997). Impulsivity in pathological gambling: The antisocial impulsivist. Addiction, 92, 75–87.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brase, G. L. (2009). How different types of participant payments alter task performance. Judgment and Decision Making, 4, 419–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bromiley, P., & Curley, S. P. (1992). Individual differences in risk-taking. In J. F. Yates (Ed.), Risk taking behaviour (pp. 87–132). Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992). The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452–459.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Camerer, C. F., & Hogarth, R. M. (1999). The effects of financial incentives in experiments: A review and capital-labor-production framework. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 19, 7–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, P. T., & McRae, R. R. (1992). The revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, J. E., & Jessor, R. (1985). Structure of problem behavior in adolescence and young adulthood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 890–904.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrhart, M. G., Ehrhart, K. H., Roesch, S. C., Chung-Herrera, B. G., Nadler, K., & Bradshaw, K. (2009). Testing the latent factor structure and construct validity of the ten-item personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 900–905.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, M. W. (1985). Personality and individual differences: A natural science approach. New York: Plenum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck, S. B. G., Pearson, P. R., Easting, G., & Allsopp, J. F. (1985). Age norms for impulsiveness, venturesomeness and empathy in adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 613–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farrington, D. P. (1995). Development of offending and antisocial behaviour from childhood: Key findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Journal of Child Psychology, 360, 929–964.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrey, A. E., & Mishra, S. (2014). Compensation method affects risk-taking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Personality and Individual Differences, 64, 111–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferris, J., & Wynne, H. (2001). The Canadian Problem Gambling Index: Final report (Submitted to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fessler, D. M. T., Pillsworth, E. G., & Flamson, T. J. (2004). Angry men and disgusted women: An evolutionary approach to the influence of emotions on risk-taking. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 95, 107–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M., & Savage, L. J. (1948). The utility analysis of choice involving risk. Journal of Political Economy, 56, 279–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gneezy, U., & Rustichini, A. (2000). Pay enough or don’t pay at all. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 791–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomà-i-Freixanet, M. (1995). Prosocial and antisocial aspects of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 125–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomà-i-Freixanet, M. (2001). Prosocial and antisocial aspects of personality in women: A replication study. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 1401–1411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B, Jr. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grasmick, H. J., Tittle, C. R., Bursik, R. J, Jr, & Arneklev, B. J. (1993). Testing the core empirical implications of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 30, 5–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanoch, Y., Johnson, J. G., & Wilke, A. (2006). Domain specificity in experimental measures and participant recruitment: An application to risk-taking behavior. Psychological Science, 17, 300–304.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, G. T., Rice, M. E., & Quinsey, V. L. (1994). Psychopathy as a taxon: Evidence that psychopaths are a discrete class. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 387–397.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hirschi, T., & Gottfredson, M. R. (1994). The generality of deviance. In T. Hirschi & M. R. Gottfredson (Eds.), The generality of deviance. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, S., & Quisenberry, N. (2004). The general theory of crime: How general is it? Deviant Behavior, 25, 401–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Junger, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (1999). Self-control, accidents and crime. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 26, 485–501.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lalumière, M. L., Harris, G. T., Quinsey, V. L., & Rice, M. E. (2005). The causes of rape: Understanding individual differences in male propensity of sexual aggression. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lalumière, M. L., & Quinsey, V. L. (1996). Sexual deviance, antisociality, mating effort, and the use of sexually coercive behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 33–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lejuez, C. W., Read, J. P., Wahler, C. W., Richards, J. B., Ramsey, S. E., Stuart, G. L., et al. (2002). Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk-taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 75–84.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, M. R. (1990). Risk taking and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 1073–1080.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, M. R., Kiehl, K. A., & Fitzpatrick, C. M. (1995). Assessing psychopathic attributes in a noninstitutionalized population. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 151–158.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R., Whiteside, S., & Jones, S. (1999). Self-reported psychopathy: A validation study. Journal of Personality Assessment, 73, 110–132.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLaren, V. V., Best, L. A., Dixon, M. J., & Harrigan, K. A. (2011). Problem gambling and the five factor model in university students. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 335–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, B. (2003). An empirical examination of the construct validity of two alternative self-control measures. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 63, 674–706.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., MacKillop, J., Fortune, E. E., Maples, J., Lance, C. E., Campbell, W. K., & Goodie, A. S. (2013). Personality correlates of pathological gambling derived from Big Three and Big Five personality models. Psychiatry Research, 206, 50–55.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S. (2014). Decision-making under risk: Integrating perspectives from biology, economics, and psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18, 280–307.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., Barclay, P., & Sparks, A. (in press). The relative state model: Integrating need-based and ability-based pathways to risk-taking. Personality and Social Psychology Review.

  • Mishra, S., & Carleton, R. N. (2015). Subjective relative deprivation is associated with poorer physical and mental health. Social Science and Medicine, 147, 144–149.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., & Lalumière, M. L. (2009). Is the crime drop of the 1990s in Canada and the USA associated with a general decline in risky and health-related behaviors? Social Science and Medicine, 68, 39–48.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., & Lalumière, M. L. (2010). You can’t always get what you want: The motivational effect of need on risk-sensitive decision-making. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 605–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., Lalumière, M. L., Morgan, M., & Williams, R. J. (2011a). An examination of the relationship between gambling and antisocial behavior. Journal of Gambling Studies, 27, 409–426.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., Lalumière, M. L., & Williams, R. J. (2010a). Gambling as a form of risk-taking: Individual differences in personality, risk-accepting attitudes, and behavioral preferences for risk. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 616–621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., Logue, D. M., Abiola, I. O., & Cade, W. H. (2011b). Developmental environment affects risk-acceptance in the hissing cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 125, 40–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., Morgan, M., Lalumière, M. L., & Williams, R. J. (2010b). Mood and audience effects on video lottery terminal gambling. Journal of Gambling Studies, 26, 373–386.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, S., & Novakowski, D. (2016). Personal relative deprivation and risk: An examination of individual differences in personality, attitudes, and behavioral outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 22–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, T. E., Arsenault, L., Belsky, D., Dickson, N., Hancox, R. J., & Caspi, A. (2011). A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth, and public safety. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 108, 2693–2698.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Harrington, H., & Milne, B. J. (2002). Males on the life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways: Follow-up at age 26 years. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 179–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1988). Self-reported delinquency: Results from an instrument for New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 21, 227–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349, 943–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orford, J., Wardle, H., Griffiths, M., Sproston, K., & Erens, B. (2010). PGSI and DSM-IV in the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey: Reliability, item response, factor structure, and inter-scale agreement. International Gambling Studies, 10, 31–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osgood, D. W., Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (1988). The generality of deviance in late adolescence and early adulthood. American Sociological Review, 53, 81–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pashler, H., & Wagenmakers, E. (2012). Editor’s introduction to the special section on replicability in psychological science: A crisis of confidence? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 528–530.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, J. W. (1964). Risk aversion in the small and in the large. Econometrica, 32, 122–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rode, C., Cosmides, L., Hell, W., & Tooby, J. (1999). When and why do people avoid unknown probabilities in decisions under uncertainty? Testing some predictions from optimal foraging theory. Cognition, 72, 269–304.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Simonsohn, U. (2015). Small telescopes: Detectability and the evaluation of replication results. Psychological Science, 26, 559–569.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Slovic, P. (1964). Assessment of risk taking behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 61, 330–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, G., Wynne, H., & Hartnagel, T. (2003). Examining police records to assess gambling impacts: A study of gambling-related crime in the city of Edmonton. Edmonton, Canada: Alberta Gaming Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchfield, R. (2004). Demographic, psychosocial, and behavioural factors associated with youth gambling and problem gambling. In J. L. Derevensky & R. Gupta (Eds.), Gambling problems in youth: Theoretical and applied perspectives. New York: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchfield, R., McCready, J., Turner, N. E., Jiminez-Murcia, S., Petry, N. M., Grant, J., et al. (in press). Reliability, validity, and classification accuracy of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder and comparison to DSM-IV. Journal of Gambling Studies.

  • Toneatto, T., & Nguyen, L. (2007). Individual characteristics and problem gambling behavior. In G. Smith, D. C. Hodgins, & R. J. Williams (Eds.), Research and measurement Issues in gambling studies (pp. 279–303). Amsterdam: Elsevier.  

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, N. E., Preston, D. L., McAvoy, S., & Saunders, C. (2007). Problem gambling in Canadian federal offenders: Prevalence, comorbidity, and correlates (Submitted to the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre). Guelph, ON: Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitaro, F., Brendgen, M., Ladouceur, R., & Tremblay, R. E. (2001). Gambling, delinquency, and drug use during adolescence: Mutual influences and common risk factors. Journal of Gambling Studies, 17, 171–190.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. J., Royston, J., & Hagen, B. F. (2005). Gambling and problem gambling within forensic populations: A review of literature. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 32, 665–689.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. J., & Volberg, R. A. (2014). Classification accurancy of four problem gambling assessment instruments. International Gambling Studies, 14, 15–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood, A. P., Dawe, S., & Gullo, M. J. (2013). The role of personality, family influences, and prosocial risk-taking behavior on substance use in early adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 871–881.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioural expressions and biosocial bases of sensation-seeking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M. (2007). Sensation seeking and risky behavior. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a research grants and fellowships from the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The authors would like to thank Thomas Fox, Sara Kafashan, Lindsay Kleiner, Christine Mishra, and Alix Shriner for their help with data collection.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK, S4S0A2, Canada

    Sandeep Mishra

  2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Martin L. Lalumière

  3. University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Robert J. Williams

Authors
  1. Sandeep Mishra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martin L. Lalumière
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Robert J. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandeep Mishra.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mishra, S., Lalumière, M.L. & Williams, R.J. Gambling, Risk-Taking, and Antisocial Behavior: A Replication Study Supporting the Generality of Deviance. J Gambl Stud 33, 15–36 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9608-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9608-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation