Arousal and Affective Differences Between Student

Authors: Antonio PascualLeone Jennifer L Campeau Shawn J Harrington

Publish Date: 2011/11/08

Volume: 28, Issue: 4, Pages: 649-663

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Abstract

The current study examined the differences in arousal physiologically and subjectively between gamblers and nongamblers Thirty students from a midsized university took part in the study for a chance to win money in a gambling task Nearly half of the participants identified themselves as nongamblers and slightly more than half of the participants considered themselves gamblers Findings indicated that gamblers experienced a significantly higher increase in physiological arousal heart rate compared to nongamblers during the gambling experience The results suggests the possibility that physiological arousal may play a role in the appeal of gambling to certain types of people Furthermore when gamblers suffered a loss at the end of the game they reported feeling worse as compared to the nongamblers and relative to their state before playing Moreover this affective change explained 286 of the variance in gambling behavior according to selfreports Findings suggest that gamblers in our study may have been more personally invested in the gambling tasks such that losing was more disappointing to the habitual gamblers than the nongamblers

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