Counterfactual thinking and gambling behavior

Counterfactual thought is thinking about what might have been. It is remembering the past, not as it actually happened, but how we wish it happened. Research has shown that counterfactual thought affects a wide range of psychological processes including emotion and decision making. This research examined the counterfactual thoughts of individuals engaged in a gambling task. A 2 (outcome groups) X 2 (counterfactual direction) X 4 (gambling type) Analysis of Variance did not find significant differences in the number of counterfactuals generated between gambling groups. It was found, however, that individuals who lost the task generated more counterfactuals than individuals who won the task. The discussion section explains how future researchers could use this unique task along with a more sophisticated method of assessing counterfactual thought to understand more fully how counterfactual thought affects gambling behavior.Department of Psychological ScienceThesis (M.A.