Gambling for Yourself vs Others

This piece, by Onno Berkan, was published on 04/01/25. The original text, by Hammerstrom et al., was published by the Journal of Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience on 04/2025.

I spent a good chunk of Spring break playing poker, and if you’ve ever done anything similar, you can probably attest to how fascinating the changes in your brain and worldview are when you’re gambling. Suddenly, everyone’s an enemy. Every move and every word is a potential lie, including yours, and your ability to discern truth from lie can mean life or death. 

This University of Victoria study examined how people process rewards differently when gambling for themselves versus others through a unique experimental setup. The researchers recruited 30 undergraduate students to play a gambling game while measuring their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG).

In the experiment, participants played a simple gambling game where they had to choose between two colored squares, with one square having a higher chance of winning. Before each gambling choice, participants were show  a photo of someone they knew personally (like a friend or family member), or a photo of a stranger. This indicated who would receive the monetary reward if they won that round. Each successful gamble resulted in a 10-cent reward for the designated person.

The researchers were particularly interested in how the brain processes information differently when making decisions for oneself versus others. They measured two specific brain responses: the P200, which reflects early attention and perception, and the reward positivity, which indicates how the brain processes rewards. Interestingly, while participants showed stronger early brain responses (P200s) when gambling for themselves compared to others, the actual reward processing in the brain was similar regardless of who was receiving the reward.

The behavioral results showed that participants performed better when gambling for themselves and their friends than for strangers. This suggests that people may be more motivated or attentive when the outcome affects themselves or someone they know. However, contrary to previous research, the brain's reward response was similar whether the win was for themselves, their friend, or a stranger.

The researchers propose that this might be due to their use of more realistic representations (actual photos) of the people involved, which could have created more empathy towards others. Additionally, the instructions to win as much as possible for everyone involved might have made participants equally invested in all outcomes.

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