Trapped in hope: the negative impact of hope on gambling decisions

Hope is a commonly encountered positive emotion in daily life. Although most extant literature highlights its positive consequences, nascent studies suggest potential negative outcomes. In this article, findings of five studies, including a study with consequential decisions, demonstrated that in a gambling context, hope can lead to suboptimal decisions. The authors theorized and showed empirically that hope triggers experiential processing, which in turn increases gambling, even though it does not affect rational expectations of winning. Evidence from a variety of gambling contexts revealed hope leads to both intended and actual gambling behavior. However, this effect did not hold for consumers who exhibit low trait experiential processing, and was attenuated when people were prompted not to rely on their feelings. This article contributes to prior literature by providing a detailed description of how hope affects information processing and leads to suboptimal decisions in a gambling context. More broadly, the findings offer implications for policy makers and consumers seeking to understand and anticipate how an everyday positive emotion might be detrimental to consumer welfare.