NEW PAPER: update review on Loss Chasing

We have a new review article out on Loss Chasing in a special issue of Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences. In this paper we look to contrast two alternative ways of conceptualizing an important feature of disordered gambling: a neurocognitive approach that emphasizes impulsivity & compulsivity, and a behavioural economics approach, where the value function from Prospect Theory offers a number of ideas, including role of loss aversion and reference point updating. In writing this, we realized loss chasing is expressed in many ways, raising the need for greater conceptual clarity when people use the term ‘loss chasing’. Many gamblers, including non-problem gamblers, report chasing, and they also report chasing wins and near-misses. In addition, the DSM diagnostic item ‘going back another day’ (also called ‘between session chasing’) is not what most behavioural research has actually looked at…

Zhang K, Clark L. Loss-chasing in gambling behaviour: neurocognitive and behavioural economic perspectives. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 2020, 31, 1-7.