Abstract
A number of studies have explored the relationship between religious beliefs and gambling (including gambling fallacies and gambling harm) but report seemingly contradictory findings. While some studies have found religious belief to be positively associated with gambling fallacies, others have found it to be a protective factor from gambling harms. One explanation for these differing effects is that gambling fallacies and metaphysical religious belief share properties of supernatural and magical thinking. Nevertheless, social support and moral strictures associated with religion might help protect against an unhealthy engagement with gambling. Using a multidimensional measure of religiosity, we hypothesised that only the supernatural facet of religious adherence would present a risk for gambling fallacies. We analysed two archival data sources collected in Canada (Quinte Longitudinal Study: N = 4121, Mage = 46, SDage = 14, Female = 54%; Leisure, Lifestyle and Lifecycle Project: N = 1372, Mage = 37, SDage = 17, Female = 56%). Using the Rohrbaugh–Jessor Religiosity Scale, we confirmed that the supernatural theistic domain of religion was a positive risk factor for gambling fallacies. However, participation in ritual (behavioural) aspects, such as churchgoing, was negatively associated with risk, and no effect was observed for the consequential (moral) domain. We conclude that multidimensional aspects in religious measures may account for conflicting prior findings.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Availability of data and materials
Data files are available by request from the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (www.greo.ca). Data was obtained from archived projects: Leisure, lifestyle, and lifecycle project: el-Guebaly et al. (2019), and the Quinte longitudinal study: Williams et al. (2014).
References
Armstrong, T., Rockloff, M., & Browne, M. (2020a). Gamble with your head and not your heart: A conceptual model for how thinking-style promotes irrational gambling beliefs. Journal of Gambling Studies, 36(1), 183–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09927-z
Armstrong, T., Rockloff, M., Browne, M., & Blaszczynski, A. (2019). Development and validation of the Protective Gambling Beliefs Scale (PGBS). International Gambling Studies, 19(1), 36–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/14459795.2018.1500624
Armstrong, T., Rockloff, M., Browne, M., & Blaszczynski, A. (2020b). Beliefs about gambling mediate the effect of cognitive style on gambling problems. Journal of Gambling Studies, 36(3), 871–886. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-020-09942-5
Armstrong, T., Rockloff, M., Browne, M., & Blaszczynski, A. (2020c). Encouraging gamblers to think critically using generalised analytical priming is ineffective at reducing gambling biases. Journal of Gambling Studies, 36(3), 851–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09910-8
Atran, S., & Norenzayan, A. (2004). Religion’s evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(6), 713–730. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X04000172
Ayton, P., & Fischer, I. (2004). The hot hand fallacy and the gambler’s fallacy: Two faces of subjective randomness? Memory & Cognition, 32(8), 1369–1378. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206327
Baboushkin, H. R., Hardoon, K. K., Derevensky, J. L., & Gupta, R. (2001). Underlying cognitions in gambling behavior among university students. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31(7), 1409–1430. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02680.x
Bormann, N. L., Allen, J., Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2019). Religiosity and chance beliefs in persons with DSM-IV pathological gambling enrolled in a longitudinal follow-up study. Journal of Gambling Studies, 35(3), 849–860. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-019-09857-w
Browne, M., Hing, N., Rockloff, M., Russell, A. M. T., Greer, N., Nicoll, F., & Smith, G. (2019). A multivariate evaluation of 25 proximal and distal risk-factors for gambling-related harm. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 8(4), 509. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8040509
Browne, M., Pennycook, G., Goodwin, B., & McHenry, M. (2014). Reflective minds and open hearts: Cognitive style and personality predict religiosity and spiritual thinking in a community sample: Cognitive style, personality and religiosity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(7), 736–742. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2059
Case, T. I., Fitness, J., Cairns, D. R., & Stevenson, R. J. (2004). Coping with uncertainty: Superstitious strategies and secondary control1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(4), 848–871. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02574.x
Chrétien, M., Giroux, I., Goulet, A., Jacques, C., & Bouchard, S. (2017). Cognitive restructuring of gambling-related thoughts: A systematic review. Addictive Behaviors, 75, 108–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.07.001
Clark, L. (2010). Decision-making during gambling: an integration of cognitive and psychobiological approaches. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 365(1538), 319–330. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0147
Cornwall, M., Albrecht, S. L., Cunningham, P. H., & Pitcher, B. L. (1986). The dimensions of religiosity: A conceptual model with an empirical test. Review of Religious Research, 27(3), 226–244. https://doi.org/10.2307/3511418
Cosenza, M., Ciccarelli, M., & Nigro, G. (2019). The steamy mirror of adolescent gamblers: Mentalization, impulsivity, and time horizon. Addictive Behaviors, 89, 156–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.10.002
Delfabbro, P. H., & Winefeld, A. H. (2000). Predictors of irrational thinking in regular slot machine gamblers. The Journal of Psychology, 134(2), 117–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980009600854
Dixon, M. R. (2000). Manipulating the illusion of control: Variations in gambling as a function of perceived control over chance outcomes. The Psychological Record, 50(4), 705–719. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395379
Ejova, A., Delfabbro, P. H., & Navarro, D. J. (2015). Erroneous gambling-related beliefs as illusions of primary and secondary control: A confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Gambling Studies, 31(1), 133–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-013-9402-9
Ejova, A., & Ohtsuka, K. (2019). Erroneous gambling-related beliefs emerge from broader beliefs during problem-solving: a critical review and classification scheme. Thinking & Reasoning. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2019.1590233
el-Guebaly, N., Casey, D. M., Currie, S. R., Hodgins, D. C., Schopflocher, D. P., Smith, G. J., & Williams, R. J. (2019). Leisure, lifestyle, and lifecycle project (LLLP): A longitudinal study of gambling in Alberta [Canada]. Scholars Portal Dataverse. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/Z7YEYI
Emond, M. S., & Marmurek, H. H. C. (2010). Gambling related cognitions mediate the association between thinking style and problem gambling severity. Journal of Gambling Studies, 26(2), 257–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-009-9164-6
Gaboury, A., & Ladouceur, R. (1989). Erroneous perceptions and gambling. http://search.proquest.com/openview/f002c91becc223b71eded0867d80bd5a/1/advanced. Accessed 21 Sept 2020
Gervais, W. M. (2014). Everything is permitted? People intuitively judge immorality as representative of atheists. PLoS ONE, 9(4), e92302. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092302
Gervais, W. M. (2015). Override the controversy: Analytic thinking predicts endorsement of evolution. Cognition, 142, 312–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.011
Gilovich, T., Vallone, R., & Tversky, A. (1985). The hot hand in basketball: On the misperception of random sequences. Cognitive Psychology, 17(3), 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(85)90010-6
Glock, C., & Stark, R. (1966). Christian beliefs and anti-Semitism. New York: Harper & Row.
Heywood, B. T., & Bering, J. M. (2014). “Meant to be”: How religious beliefs and cultural religiosity affect the implicit bias to think teleologically. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 4(3), 183–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2013.782888
Hill, P. C., & Hood Jr., R. W. (Eds.). (1999). Measures of religiosity. Birmingham, Alabama: Religious Education Press.
Hills, P., Francis, L. J., & Robbins, M. (2005). The development of the Revised Religious Life Inventory (RLI-R) by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(6), 1389–1399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.006
Hodgins, D. C., Schopflocher, D. P., Martin, C. R., el-Guebaly, N., Casey, D. M., Currie, S. R., et al. (2012). Disordered gambling among higher-frequency gamblers: Who is at risk? Psychological Medicine, 42(11), 2433–2444. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712000724
Hood, B. M., Lindeman, M., & Riekki, T. (2011). Is weaker inhibition associated with supernatural beliefs? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 11(1–2), 231–239. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853711X570038
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1973). On the psychology of prediction. Psychological Review, 80(4), 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034747
Keren, G. B., & Wagenaar, W. A. (1985). On the psychology of playing blackjack: Normative and descriptive considerations with implications for decision theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114(2), 133–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.114.2.133
Kim, H. S., Shifrin, A., Sztainert, T., & Wohl, M. J. A. (2018). Placing your faith on the betting floor: Religiosity predicts disordered gambling via gambling fallacies. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(2), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.23
Kim, S., & McGill, A. L. (2011). Gaming with Mr. Slot or gaming the slot machine? Power, anthropomorphism, and risk perception. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(1), 94–107. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/658148
Koenig, H. G., & Büssing, A. (2010). The Duke University Religion Index (DUREL): A five-item measure for use in epidemological studies. Religions, 1(1), 78–85. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel1010078
Ladouceur, R., & Sévigny, S. (2005). Structural characteristics of video lotteries: Effects of a stopping device on illusion of control and gambling persistence. Journal of Gambling Studies, 21(2), 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-005-3028-5
Langer, E. J., & Roth, J. (1975). Heads I win, tails it’s chance: The illusion of control as a function of the sequence of outcomes in a purely chance task. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(6), 951–955. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.32.6.951
Leonard, C. A. (2018). Fallacious beliefs: Gambling specific and belief in the paranormal (Ph.D.). University of Lethbridge (Canada), Canada. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/2054014351/abstract/5617E280738A46C0PQ/1
Leonard, C. A., & Williams, R. J. (2015). Gambling fallacies: What are They and how are they best measured? Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy, 06(04). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4172/2155-6105.1000256
Lindeman, M., & Aarnio, K. (2007). Superstitious, magical, and paranormal beliefs: An integrative model. Journal of Research in Personality, 41(4), 731–744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2006.06.009
Lindeman, M., Svedholm-Häkkinen, A. M., & Lipsanen, J. (2015). Ontological confusions but not mentalizing abilities predict religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in supernatural purpose. Cognition, 134, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.09.008
Lindeman, M., Svedholm-Häkkinen, A. M., & Riekki, T. (2016). Skepticism: Genuine unbelief or implicit beliefs in the supernatural? Consciousness and Cognition, 42, 216–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2016.03.019
Ma-Kellams, C. (2015). When perceiving the supernatural changes the natural: Religion and agency detection. Journal of Cognition & Culture, 15(3/4), 337–343. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12342154
Morgan, J., Wood, C., & Caldwell-Harris, C. (2018). Reflective thought, religious belief, and the social foundations hypothesis. In G. Pennycook (Ed.), The new reflectionism in cognitive psychology: Why reason matters. New York, NY: Routledge.
Patel, N., Baker, S. G., & Scherer, L. D. (2019). Evaluating the cognitive reflection test as a measure of intuition/reflection, numeracy, and insight problem solving, and the implications for understanding real-world judgments and beliefs. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000592
Pennycook, G., Cheyne, J. A., Seli, P., Koehler, D. J., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2012). Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief. Cognition, 123(3), 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.03.003
Riva, P., Sacchi, S., & Brambilla, M. (2015). Humanizing machines: Anthropomorphization of slot machines increases gambling. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 21(4), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000057
Rohrbaugh, J., & Jessor, R. (1975). Religiosity in youth: A personal control against deviant behavior1. Journal of Personality, 43(1), 136–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1975.tb00577.x
Saroglou, V., & Galand, P. (2004). Identities, values, and religion: a study among muslim, other immigrant, and native belgian young adults after the 9/11 attacks. Identity, 4(2), 97–132. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532706xid0402_1
Sevigny, S., & Ladouceur, R. (2003). Gamblers’ irrational thinking about chance events: the “double switching” concept. International Gambling Studies, 3(2), 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356347032000142261
Shenhav, A., Rand, D. G., & Greene, J. D. (2012). Divine intuition: Cognitive style influences belief in God. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 423–428. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025391
Steenbergh, T. A., Meyers, A. W., May, R. K., & Whelan, J. P. (2002). Development and validation of the Gamblers’ Beliefs Questionnaire. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16(2), 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1037//0893-164X.16.2.143
Stöckl, T., Huber, J., Kirchler, M., & Lindner, F. (2015). Hot hand and gambler’s fallacy in teams: Evidence from investment experiments. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 117, 327–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.07.004
Uecker, J. E., & Stokes, C. E. (2016). Religious background and gambling among young adults in the United States. Journal of Gambling Studies, 32(1), 341–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-015-9532-3
Valdesolo, P., & Graham, J. (2014). Awe, uncertainty, and agency detection. Psychological Science, 25(1), 170–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613501884
Wagner-Egger, P., Delouvée, S., Gauvrit, N., & Dieguez, S. (2018). Creationism and conspiracism share a common teleological bias. Current Biology, 28(16), R867–R868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.072
Walker, M. B. (1992). Irrational thinking among slot machine players. Journal of Gambling Studies, 8(3), 245–261. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01014652
Waytz, A., Morewedge, C. K., Epley, N., Monteleone, G., Gao, J.-H., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2010). Making sense by making sentient: Effectance motivation increases anthropomorphism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(3), 410–435. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020240
Willard, A. K., & Norenzayan, A. (2013). Cognitive biases explain religious belief, paranormal belief, and belief in life’s purpose. Cognition, 129(2), 379–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.07.016
Williams, R. J. (2003). Reliability and validity of four scales to assess gambling attitudes, gambling knowledge, gambling fallacies and ability to calculate gambling odds. (Unpublished technical report). Lethbridge, Alberta: Available from author.
Williams, R. J., Hann, R., McLaughlin, P., White, N., King, K., Schopflocher, D., et al. (2014). The Quinte longitudinal study of gambling and problem gambling 2006–2011, Bay of Quinte region, Ontario [Canada]. (Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, Trans.). Scholars Portal Dataverse.
Wohl, M. J. A., & Enzle, M. E. (2002). The deployment of personal luck: Sympathetic magic and illusory control in games of pure chance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(10), 1388–1397. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616702236870
Wohl, M. J. A., Young, M. M., & Hart, K. E. (2007). Self-perceptions of dispositional luck: Relationship to DSM gambling symptoms, subjective enjoyment of gambling and treatment readiness. Substance Use & Misuse, 42(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826080601094223
Xu, J., & Harvey, N. (2014). Carry on winning: The gamblers’ fallacy creates hot hand effects in online gambling. Cognition, 131(2), 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.01.002
Yakovenko, I., Hodgins, D. C., el-Guebaly, N., Casey, D. M., Currie, S. R., Smith, G. J., et al. (2016). Cognitive distortions predict future gambling involvement. International Gambling Studies, 16(2), 175–192. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/14459795.2016.1147592
Funding
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis were performed by Brenton Williams and Associate Professor Matthew Browne. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Brenton Williams and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical approval
The methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of CQUniversity (0000022707).
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Williams, B.M., Browne, M., Rockloff, M. et al. Protective Action and Risky Beliefs: The Relationship Between Religion and Gambling Fallacies. J Gambl Stud 38, 253–263 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-021-10028-z
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-021-10028-z