Loss, gain and choice difficulty in gambling patients: Neural and behavioural processes.

Impaired decision-making is often displayed by individuals suffering from gambling disorder (GD). Since there are a variety of different phenomena influencing decision-making, we focused in this study on the effects of GD on neural and behavioural processes related to loss aversion and choice difficulty. Behavioural responses as well as brain images of 23 patients with GD and 20 controls were recorded while they completed a mixed gambles task, where they had to decide to either accept or reject gambles with different amounts of potential gain and loss. We found no behavioural loss aversion in either group and no group differences regarding loss and gain-related choice behaviour, but there was a weaker relation between choice difficulty and decision time in patients with GD. Similarly, we observed no group differences in processing of losses or gains, but choice difficulty was weaker associated with brain activity in the right anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex in patients with GD. Our results showed for the first time the effects of GD on neural processes related to choice difficulty. In addition, our findings on choice difficulty give new insights on the psychopathology of GD and on neural processes related to impaired decision-making in GD.

'Getting addicted to it and losing a lot of money it's just like a hole.' A grounded theory model of how social determinants shape adolescents' choices to not gamble.

BACKGROUND: Gambling abstinence when underage lowers the risk of harmful gambling in later life. However, little research has examined why many young people refrain from gambling, even though this knowledge can inform protective strategies and lower risk factors to reduce underage gambling and subsequent harm. This study draws on the lived experience of adolescent non-gamblers to explore how social determinants while growing up have shaped their reasons and choices to not gamble. METHODS: Fourteen Australian non-gamblers, aged 12-17 years, participated in an in-depth individual interview (4 girls, 3 boys) or online community (4 girls, 3 boys). Questions in each condition differed, but both explored participants' gambling-related experiences while growing up, including exposure, attitudes and behaviours of parents and peers, advertising, simulated gambling and motivations for not gambling. The analysis used adaptive grounded theory methods. RESULTS: The grounded theory model identifies several reasons for not gambling, including not being interested, being below the legal gambling age, discouragement from parent and peers, concern about gambling addiction and harm, not wanting to risk money on a low chance of winning, and moral objections. These reasons were underpinned by several social determinants, including individual, parental, peer and environmental factors that can interact to deter young people from underage gambling. Key protective factors were parental role modelling and guidance, friendship groups who avoided gambling, critical thinking, rational gambling beliefs, financial literacy and having other hobbies and interests. CONCLUSIONS: Choices to not gamble emanated from multiple layers of influence, implying that multi-layered interventions, aligned with a public health response, are needed to deter underage gambling. At the environmental level, better age-gating for monetary and simulated gambling, countering cultural pressures, and less exposure to promotional gambling messages, may assist young people to resist these influences. Interventions that support parents to provide appropriate role modelling and guidance for their children are also important. Youth education could include cautionary tales from people with lived experience of gambling harm, and education to increase young people's financial literacy, ability to recognise marketing tactics, awareness of the risks and harms of gambling, and how to resist peer and other normalising gambling influences.

Decision-making under conditions of explicit risk and uncertainty in autistic and typically developing adolescents and young adults.

Adolescence has been characterized as a period of risky and possibly suboptimal decision-making, yet the development of decision-making in autistic adolescents is not well understood. To investigate decision-making in autism, we evaluated performance on 2 computerized tasks capturing decision-making under explicit risk and uncertainty in autistic and non-autistic adolescents/young adults ages 12-22 years. Participants completed the Game of Dice Task (32 IQ-matched participant pairs) to assess decision-making under explicit risk and the modified Iowa Gambling Task (35 IQ-matched pairs) to assess decision-making under uncertainty. Autistic participants overall made riskier decisions than non-autistic participants on the Game of Dice Task, and the odds of making riskier decisions varied by age and IQ. In contrast, the autistic group showed comparable levels of learning over trial blocks to the non-autistic group on the modified Iowa Gambling Task. For both tasks, younger autistic participants performed poorer than their non-autistic counterparts, while group differences diminished in older ages. This age-related pattern suggests positive development during adolescence on risk assessment and decision-making in autism but also implies differential developmental trajectories between groups. These findings also suggest differential performance by the risk type, with additional complex influences of IQ and fluid cognition, which warrants further investigations.

Negative and positive mental health characteristics of affected family members: Findings from a cross-sectional Australian general population gambling study.

Despite the impact of problem gambling on affected family members (AFMs), there are limited large-scale population level studies identifying the negative mental health (NMH) and positive mental health (PMH) characteristics of AFMs. Furthermore, no study has explored whether PMH characteristics are protective in the relationships between AFM status and NMH characteristics. This study involved secondary data analysis from the Third Social and Economic Impact Study of Gambling in Tasmania. Using a subsample of 1,869 adults (48.30 % male; meanage = 48.48; 4.67 % AFMs), this study aimed to explore whether: (1) AFM status is associated with NMH (depression, anxiety, panic, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety, binge drinking, tobacco use, and drug use symptoms) and PMH (quality of life [QOL], personal growth/autonomy, interpersonal/social skills, coping skills) characteristics after separately controlling for sociodemographic, problem gambling severity, and other NMH characteristics; (2) PMH characteristics moderate (buffer) the relationships between AFM status and NMH characteristics; and (3) gender influences these relationships. AFM status, defined as exposure to family member gambling problems, significantly positively predicted NMH characteristics (depression, anxiety, panic, PTSD, and tobacco use symptoms) and negatively predicted QOL (physical, social) and planning coping. The strength of these relationships generally attenuated after controlling for various covariates. Gender did not moderate these relationships. Religious coping exacerbated the relationship between AFM status and panic disorder symptoms. These findings can inform the development of intervention initiatives for family members exposed to gambling problems. Future population-representative research is required using a range of affected other types, longitudinal study designs, and more comprehensive measures.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on gambling: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, people's habits changed radically. In fact, to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, governments implemented restrictive measures that influenced the lives of individuals. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on gambling by examining three different outcomes: frequency, expenditure, and transition among possible types of gambling. METHODS: All studies assessing the impact of restrictive measures implemented to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 on gambling were included. For the search, two different databases were used: Pubmed and CINAHL. Moreover, two different populations were analyzed: the general population, and subjects who used to gamble before SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. All qualitative studies, reports not based on peer-review, and papers in which the statistical unit was not the subject but the gambling or wagering operators were excluded. RESULTS: From the search, 408 reports were identified. Of these, 28 were included in the systematic review. From the studies, a strong reduction in the frequency and expenditure of land-based gambling emerged, while the results about online gambling were different among the studies. However, a reduction was observed assessing sports betting, and an increase emerged considering online casino and skill games. Finally, a significant migration from land-based gambling to online platforms was identified. The main reasons for these findings were the physical closures of land-based gambling venues and the more time spent at home, the suspension or cancelation of sporting events on which subjects used to bet, and more mental health issues during this challenging period. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected subjects' habits, including gambling, by reducing land-based gambling and sports betting, and increasing gambling on online platforms. This shift poses significant challenges, requiring a comprehensive approach to monitor and mitigate the negative consequences of this increase in online gambling caused by the pandemic.

Predictors of pathological gambling behaviours in parents population in Nigeria.

The increasing incidence of psychological pains, burnout, and anxiety among gamblers in Nigeria is high. This is because pathological gambling (PG) is on the rise and it is linked to many social vices such as stealing, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. It is important to investigate the trajectories of PG in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design was employed in our study with 197 participants sampled from 28 gambling venues in Nigeria made up the study's sample size. Of the 197, 131 (66.5%) were males and 66 (33.5%) were females. 50 (25.4%) were within the age range of 20-30 years, 42 (21.3%) were within 31-40 years, 40 (20.3%) were within 41-50 years, 35 (17.8%) were within 51-60 years, and 30 (15.2%) were within 61 and above. Using the hierarchical regression analysis, our finding revealed a significant association between psychological distress and our respondents' pathological gambling behaviour whereas none of the sociodemographic variables made a significant contribution to their pathological gambling behaviour. We concluded that gamblers' psychological well-being is crucial to understanding their problematic gambling behaviours in the context of a developing nation such as Nigeria, and that this could be similar among our respondents. Implications of our findings were highlighted.

Treatment seeking for gambling disorder in nationwide register data - observations around a major shift in legislation.

Background: Treatment seeking for gambling disorder is known to be low and there has been a lack of longitudinal research regarding treatment opportunities. The present study aimed to assess possible changes in treatment uptake after a formal introduction of gambling disorder in social services and health care legislations, by using register data, including patient characteristics with respect to socio-demographics and comorbidities. Methods: Nationwide register data were collected for the years 2005-2019, describing diagnoses in specialized out-patient health care and in in-patient hospital care. Numbers and characteristics of patients with gambling disorder were followed longitudinally. Also, a new legislation for treatment by public institutions was introduced in 2018, and data were compared for the years before and after the shift in legislation, both nationally, for each of the three major urban regions, and for the rest of the country. Comparisons were made with respect to concurrent mental health comorbidities, age and gender. Results: The number of out-patient gambling disorder diagnoses increased over time, but without any significant step changes around the shift in legislation. Over time, patients were younger, became more likely to have gambling disorder as their primary diagnosis, and less likely to have mental health comorbidities, whereas gender distribution did not change. Among the smaller group of patients diagnosed in in-patient settings, mental health comorbidity increased over time. Despite gradual changes over time, no changes in demographics were seen around the actual shift in legislation, although the psychiatric comorbidity appeared to increase after this change. Conclusion: After the introduction of gambling disorder in the responsibility of social services and health care settings in Sweden, the number of patients diagnosed with gambling disorder increased only modestly. Likely, further implementation of gambling disorder treatment is required in the health care services. Also, longer longitudinal studies are needed in order to understand to what extent patients not seeking health care treatment are received by municipal social services or remain outside the treatment system.

Against the odds: exploring individuals' pushback mechanisms against commercialized football gambling.

Introduction: The need for money, the pursuit of pleasure, and the liberalized access to gambling have been documented in several pieces of literature as the drivers of gambling. Such drivers are predicated on commercialized gambling, leading to the growth of the gambling industry and constituting a structural influence that normalizes the activity among young people. Methods: Through a qualitative inquiry, this study investigates the social agentic factors of individuals who are susceptible to gambling. Fifteen non-gamblers were recruited across three commercial cities in Africa, namely Nairobi, Lagos, and Johannesburg. We first established the gambling susceptibility of the participants: their need for money, their passion for football, ownership of a smartphone, access to the internet, and exposure to football gambling marketing. Results: Consequently, we probed for their agency, which is indicative of why they do not gamble, despite being susceptible to engaging in the activity. Four major agentic factors were identified from the participants; knowledge of the industry's business model, conserving the integrity of football, identity of self, morality and/or religion model. Discussion: As such, these factors may be utilized to develop an intervention program for gamblers within the geographical context.

Intrinsic connectivity demonstrates a shared role of the posterior cingulate for cue reactivity in both gambling and cocaine use disorders.

Cue reactivity is relevant across addictive disorders as a process relevant to maintenance, relapse, and craving. Understanding the neurobiological foundations of cue reactivity across substance and behavioral addictions has important implications for intervention development. The present study used intrinsic connectivity distribution methods to examine functional connectivity during a cue-exposure fMRI task involving gambling, cocaine and sad videos in 22 subjects with gambling disorder, 24 with cocaine use disorder, and 40 healthy comparison subjects. Intrinsic connectivity distribution implicated the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) at a stringent whole-brain threshold. Post-hoc analyses investigating the nature of the findings indicated that individuals with gambling disorder and cocaine use disorder exhibited decreased connectivity in the posterior cingulate during gambling and cocaine cues, respectively, as compared to other cues and compared to other groups. Brain-related cue reactivity in substance and behavioral addictions involve PCC connectivity in a content-to-disorder specific fashion. The findings suggesting that PCC-related circuitry underlies cue reactivity across substance and behavioral addictions suggests a potential biomarker for targeting in intervention development.

A scoping review on self-regulation and reward processing measured with gambling tasks: Evidence from the general youth population.

Aberrant reward processing and poor self-regulation have a crucial role in the development of several adverse outcomes in youth, including mental health disorders and risky behaviours. This scoping review aims to map and summarise the evidence for links between aspects and measures of reward processing and self-regulation among children and adolescents in the general population. Specifically, it examined the direct associations between self-regulation (emotional or cognitive regulation) and reward processing. Studies were included if participants were <18 years and representative of the general population. Quantitative measures were used for self-regulation, and gambling tasks were used for reward processing. Of the eighteen studies included only two were longitudinal. Overall, the direction of the significant relationships identified depended on the gambling task used and the self-regulation aspect explored. Emotional regulation was measured with self-report questionnaires only, and was the aspect with the most significant associations. Conversely, cognitive regulation was mainly assessed with cognitive assessments, and most associations with reward processing were non-significant, particularly when the cognitive regulation aspects included planning and organisational skills. Nonetheless, there was some evidence of associations with attention, cognitive control, and overall executive functioning. More longitudinal research is needed to draw accurate conclusions on the direction of the association between self-regulation and reward processing.

Cash outs during in-play sports betting: Who, why, and what it reveals.

Cashing out is a popular feature of modern 'in-play' sports betting that allows sports bettors to withdraw a bet before the sporting event on which the bet was placed is finalized. Previous studies have shown that use of the cash out feature is positively related to problem gambling symptomatology. However, little is known about demographic and psychological characteristics of in-play sports bettors who use the cash out feature, or their motivations for use. To fill this knowledge gap, we recruited 224 adults (18 + years) from Ontario who engaged in in-play sports betting in the past three months. Participants completed self-report measures of psychological and gambling-related variables. Participants also provided qualitative responses for their motivations for using the cash out feature. Approximately half (51.8 %) of the participants reported using the cash out feature. No statistically significant demographic differences were found between participants who used and did not use the cash out feature. Participants who used the feature (compared to those who did not) reported higher problematic alcohol and cannabis use, feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress, and were motivated to gamble to make money. The primary reasons for cashing out were to access money immediately, to cut losses, and because cashing out felt like a less risky option. The current findings shed light on underlying psychological vulnerabilities associated with individuals who use the cash out feature, which can inform initiatives to reduce the harms associated with this popular feature of sports betting.

Association between endocrine and neuropsychological endophenotypes and gambling disorder severity.

BACKGROUND: Neurobiological characteristics have been identified regarding the severity of gambling disorder (GD). The aims of this study were: (1) to examine, through a path analysis, whether there was a relationship between neuroendocrine features, potentially mediational GD variables, and GD severity, and (2) to associate neuroendocrine variables, with GD severity-related variables according to gambling preferences. METHODS: The sample included 297 outpatients with GD. We analyzed endocrine concentrations of different appetite-related hormones (ghrelin, liver antimicrobial peptide 2 [LEAP-2], leptin, adiponectin), and neuropsychological performance (working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, decision making, premorbid intelligence). Path analysis assessed mechanisms between neuroendocrine features and GD severity, including mediational GD variables (impulsivity traits and gambling-related cognitive distortions). Partial correlations evaluated the associations between neuroendocrine variables, including impulsivity traits, and variables related to GD severity (DSM-5, South Oaks Gambling Screen, illness duration, and gambling-related cognitive distortions). RESULTS: Lower adiponectin concentrations predicted greater GD severity, while higher LEAP-2 concentrations predicted more gambling-related cognitive distortions. Likewise, better neuropsychological performance directly predicted GD severity, but worse neuropsychological performance was associated with GD severity through the mediational variables of impulsivity traits and gambling-related cognitive distortions. Also, in non-strategic individuals with GD, poor working memory was associated with gambling expectancies and predictive control. In strategic individuals with GD, poor cognitive flexibility was associated with illusion of control, predictive control, and inability to stop gambling. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide updated information about the comprehension of the interaction between neuroendocrine features, clinical variables, and severity of GD. Thus, neurobiological functions seem to be strongly related to GD severity.

The COVID-19 lockdown experience suggests that restricting the supply of gambling can reduce gambling problems: An Australian prospective study.

Background and aims: COVID-19 lockdowns limited access to gambling but simultaneously elevated psychosocial stressors. This study assessed the relative effects of these changes on gambling risk status during and after the Australian COVID-19 lockdown from late-March to late-May 2020. Methods: The study administered three surveys to people who had gambled within the past year at T1. Wave 1 asked about before (T1, N = 2,125) and during lockdown (T2, N = 2,125). Subsequent surveys focused on one year (T3; N = 649) and two years after lockdown (T4, N = 458). The dependent variable was changes in reporting any problem gambling symptoms (PGSI 0 vs 1+). Bivariate analyses and multinomial logistic regression tested for significant associations with: demographics, psychosocial stressors (perceived stress, psychological distress, loneliness, health anxiety about COVID, financial hardship, stressful life events), gambling participation and gambling frequency. Results: Gambling participation and at-risk gambling decreased between T1 and T2, increased at T3, with little further change at T4. When gambling availability was curtailed, decreased gambling frequency on EGMs, casino games, sports betting or race betting, and lower psychosocial stress, were associated with transitions from at-risk to non-problem gambling. When gambling availability resumed, increased EGM gambling frequency, decreased online gambling frequency, and higher psychosocial stress were associated with transitions from non-problem to at-risk gambling. Discussion and conclusions: Gambling availability appears a stronger influence on gambling problems, at the population level, than psychosocial risk factors. Reducing the supply of high-risk gambling products, particularly EGMs, is likely to reduce gambling harm.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy for people with gambling disorder?

Gambling disorder is a severe mental health and behavioural problem with harmful consequences, including financial, relationship and mental health problems. The present paper initiates discussion on the use of psychedelics combined with psychotherapeutic support as a potential treatment option for people living with a gambling disorder. Recent studies have shown promising results using psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) to treat anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and various substance use disorders. Considering the similarities in the underlying psychosocial and neurobiological mechanisms of gambling disorder and other addictive disorders, the authors suggest that psychedelic-assisted therapy could be effective in treating gambling disorder. The paper also underscores the need for further research into the viability and effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted therapy for gambling disorder.

Brand and addiction: A network analysis of scientific literature.

OBJECTIVE: The paper conducts a network analysis of the fragmented literature on brand and addiction. METHOD: A thematic map, thematic evolution, word cloud, co-citation analysis, and cooperation networks were utilized to identify brand addiction study trends and topics. RESULTS: The data show that marketing and psychiatry have interdisciplinary groupings and multidisciplinary publications. These groups reflect societal changes, particularly the shift from traditional to digital challenges. Fast food addiction is different from alcohol and cigarette addictions due to its ease and extensive marketing. The decline in internet and gambling addiction suggests a shift in priorities. CONCLUSIONS: This research helps researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in addiction prevention and intervention. The study also understands brand addiction and its effects on psychology, psychiatry, and management by providing insights into emerging topics, thematic maps and evolution of studies, collaboration opportunities, geographical distribution of studies, and more.

Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Unplugged Program on Gambling Behaviours among Adolescents: Study Protocol of the Experimental Controlled Study "GAPUnplugged".

Gambling risk behaviour is an emerging problem among adolescents. "Unplugged" is an effective Social Influence curriculum for preventing substance use among students. This study aims to develop and test a new component focused on gambling added to the Unplugged program. Schools of Piedmont region and Rome city were invited to participate in the study. A self-completed anonymous questionnaire including questions on socio-demographic characteristics, addictive behaviours, beliefs, attitudes and risk perceptions about gambling, normative perceptions, parental practices, school climate, refusal skills, impulsiveness, self-esteem, antisocial behaviours and sensation seeking was prepared for baseline and follow-up surveys. The protocol of the study was submitted and approved by the Novara Ethical Committee and registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05630157, Protocol ID: 080.742, 11/17/2022). Twenty-nine schools accepted to participate in the study. Sixty-three classes (1325 students) satisfied the eligibility criteria for intervention and were allocated to the intervention arm, and the other 61 (1269 students) were allocated to the control arm. Because of drop-out, absentees, refusals, and invalid questionnaires, data on 1874 students (998 in the intervention and 876 in the control arm), were available for the analysis at baseline. Data management of follow-up questionnaires is in progress. Results of the present study will be useful to clarify the effectiveness of prevention interventions in reducing gambling behaviours among adolescents. Moreover, this will be the first experience of evaluating a new component focused on a different risk behaviour, added to a curriculum previously shown as effective on other risk behaviours.

Impact of online poker gambling on behavioural and neurophysiological responses to a virtual gambling task.

Online poker gambling (OPG) involves various executive control processes and emotion regulation. In this context, we hypothesized that online poker players, accustomed to handling virtual cards, would show high performance on computerized decision-making tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Using press advertisements, we recruited a non-gambler group (NG; n = 20) and an OPG group (n = 22). All participants performed the IGT while their cerebral activity was recorded by electroencephalography. Compared with the OPG group, the NG group showed significantly better progression in the IGT in the last trials. Recording of brain activity revealed the appearance of a temporal map between 150 and 175 ms specific to the gain condition in both groups. A second map was observed at 215-295 ms specifically in the NG group, and the generators were identified in the occipital regions. This activity is indicative of a high level of visual awareness; thus, it reflects additional processing of visual information, which can be assumed to be induced by the lower exposure of the NGs to online card games. We hypothesize that the absence of this activity in the OPG group might be due to their online habituation to virtual environments.

Evolutionary perspectives on substance and behavioural addictions: Distinct and shared pathways to understanding, prediction and prevention.

Addiction poses significant social, health, and criminal issues. Its moderate heritability and early-life impact, affecting reproductive success, poses an evolutionary paradox: why are humans predisposed to addictive behaviours? This paper reviews biological and psychological mechanisms of substance and behavioural addictions, exploring evolutionary explanations for the origin and function of relevant systems. Ancestrally, addiction-related systems promoted fitness through reward-seeking, and possibly self-medication. Today, psychoactive substances disrupt these systems, leading individuals to neglect essential life goals for immediate satisfaction. Behavioural addictions (e.g. video games, social media) often emulate ancestrally beneficial behaviours, making them appealing yet often irrelevant to contemporary success. Evolutionary insights have implications for how addiction is criminalised and stigmatised, propose novel avenues for interventions, anticipate new sources of addiction from emerging technologies such as AI. The emerging potential of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonists targeting obesity suggest the satiation system may be a natural counter to overactivation of the reward system.

Involving lived experience in regional efforts to address gambling-related harms: going beyond 'window dressing' and 'tick box exercises'.

BACKGROUND: Lived Experience (LE) involvement has been shown to improve interventions across diverse sectors. Yet LE contributions to public health approaches to address gambling-related harms remain underexplored, despite notable detrimental health and social outcomes linked to gambling. This paper analyses the potential of LE involvement in public health strategy to address gambling-related harms. It focuses on the example of a UK city-region gambling harms reduction intervention that presented multiple opportunities for LE input. METHODS: Three focus groups and 33 semi-structured interviews were conducted to hear from people with and without LE who were involved in the gambling harms reduction intervention, or who had previous experience of LE-informed efforts for addressing gambling-related harms. People without LE provided reflections on the value and contributions of others' LE to their work. Data analysis combined the Framework Method with themes developed inductively (from people's accounts) and deductively (from the literature, including grey literature). RESULTS: Four themes were identified: (1) personal journeys to LE involvement; (2) the value added by LE to interventions for addressing gambling-related harms; (3) emotional impacts on people with LE; and (4) collective LE and diverse lived experiences. Two figures outlining LE involvement specific to gambling harms reduction in the UK, where public health efforts aimed at addressing gambling-related harms coexist with industry-funded programmes, are proposed. CONCLUSIONS: Integrating a range of LE perspectives in a public health approach to gambling harms reduction requires local access to involvement for people with LE via diverse routes that are free from stigma and present people with LE with options in how they can engage and be heard in decision-making, and how they operate in relation to industry influence. Involving LE in gambling harms reduction requires enabling people to develop the affective and critical skills necessary to navigate complex emotional journeys and a challenging commercial and policy environment.

Craving money? Evidence from the laboratory and the field.

Continuing to gamble despite harmful consequences has plagued human life in many ways, from loss-chasing in problem gamblers to reckless investing during stock market bubbles. Here, we propose that these anomalies in human behavior can sometimes reflect Pavlovian perturbations on instrumental behavior. To show this, we combined key elements of Pavlovian psychology literature and standard economic theory into a single model. In it, when a gambling cue such as a gaming machine or a financial asset repeatedly delivers a good outcome, the agent may start engaging with the cue even when the expected value is negative. Next, we transported the theoretical framework into an experimental task and found that participants behaved like the agent in our model. Last, we applied the model to the domain of real-world financial trading and discovered an asset-pricing anomaly suggesting that market participants are susceptible to the purported Pavlovian bias.