Gambling: Why do we ignore the probability

Gambling and Probability

Hope is a word that acts like a catalyst, that is whenever we are ready to take a risk without evaluating the real possibility of the outcome, our brain triggers the hope mindset to justify our existence.

This single word is responsible for phishing attacks which make a lot of people lose their money, and also responsible for people losing their entire wealth in Gambling.

Why do we ignore the negative outcome and dive into the hope of a positive outcome more often, however in reality losing is having a higher probability.

What is the psychology behind this?

• The trick is, your mind thinks it is a low investment high return, hence it gives a go-ahead, our biology is evolved for higher returns with less energy, and the key is to produce maximum output with less energy.
• Our intuition kicks out the analysis process.
• To survive in the real world when predators dominated, our brain has to make a lot of calculations within a shorter period of time, it relies on intuition which makes a quick decision to save time and probability save your life, this worked in the age of predators dominated the world, however in the modern world we are the apex predators, however, we are the victim of the same behavior.

What is the solution?

Be pragmatic, nothing wrong to buy a lottery ticket once in a while, however, if the behavior of buying a lottery ticket is happening too often, cross-check yourself, and take help from a mental health counselor.

Also please check “Rational vs Irrational“