Compulsive gambling is marked by ___1___. Where a non-gambler fears to tread, the compulsive gambler may ___2___. Bet on the Mets to sweep a doubleheader against the Phillies with two kids brought up from AA pitching against Halliday and Lee? Seems like a great idea!

Now a study of British gamblers finds that the ones who were the most impulsive were also way more likely to ___3___. For example, they put more stock in superstition, like rituals or carrying a lucky coin. Or they’ll believe more fervently that they got a slot machine that had simply gone cold, offering them no chance to win. Thereby ___4___ the actual laws of probability that govern their alleged luck.

The study looked at 30 compulsive gamblers who sought treatment at England’s National Problem Gambling Clinic. It was published in the journal Psychological Medicine. [Rosanna Michalczuk et al., "Impulsivity and Cognitive Distortions in Pathological Gamblers Attending the U.K. National Problem Gambling Clinic: a preliminary report"]

Thirty non-gamblers served as the control group. An interesting point to consider is that the gamblers in the study were ___5___ enough to know that they had a problem in need of treatment. Other compulsive bettors may be even less rational.
【視聽(tīng)版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
poor impulse control rush in reason incorrectly discounting aware
賭博成癮表現(xiàn)為自我控制能力差。常人望而卻步，賭博成癮者卻能“義無(wú)反顧”。大都會(huì)里倆孩子是青少年棒球賽出來(lái)的，可以擋擋哈勒戴和李，橫掃費(fèi)城人兩場(chǎng)應(yīng)該沒(méi)問(wèn)題。這么好的機(jī)會(huì)，怎么能不賭一把??！ 對(duì)英國(guó)賭博者的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，越?jīng)_動(dòng)的人越容易喪失理智。他們相信迷信，比如某種儀式或者幸運(yùn)硬幣什么的；他們也可能偏執(zhí)地認(rèn)為他們面前的老虎機(jī)只是一時(shí)耍性子不讓他們贏，而無(wú)視真正控制所謂運(yùn)氣的概率。 這項(xiàng)研究的對(duì)象是前往英格蘭國(guó)家問(wèn)題賭博治療所尋求救治的30名賭博成癮者。研究報(bào)告刊登在《心理醫(yī)學(xué)》雜志上。