Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Doing it for kicks? Parsing the contributions of arousal perception and appraisal as drivers of excessive gambling

Project description

Understanding emotional dysregulation in gambling addiction

Emotional signals play an important role in decision-making, including in activities like gambling. The accurate perception and assessment of these emotional states, such as arousal, are crucial for evaluating risks and making informed choices. However, in individuals with a gambling addiction, these processes can become distorted, contributing to persistent and problematic behaviours. Effectively distinguishing between individuals with and without gambling issues based solely on emotional cues remains a challenge. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the GamblingEmotion project aims to shed light on how arousal influences disordered gambling. Specifically, it will conduct psychophysiological assessments and behavioural investigations to uncover the relationships between emotional arousal and risk perception in the context of gambling.

Objective

Psychological theories of emotion and cognition agree that emotional experiences play an important role in decision making and risk evaluation. For emotions to influence decision-making, individuals need to perceive these emotional signals (i.e. interoception), and appraise them appropriately (e.g. attribute as an internal state). These processing stages have been found to be abnormal in some forms of mental illness. In gambling behaviour, it is assumed that abnormal levels of arousal are a source of reinforcement and can lead to problematic gambling participation. Yet, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and emotional signals alone (e.g. heart rate changes) do not reliably differentiate people with and without gambling problems. The current project will clarify the role of arousal in disordered gambling to close this knowledge gap by using a novel approach to separate the contributions of arousal perception, and the influence of risk and ambiguity on arousal and the appraisal of arousal. Work package (WP) 1 will record psychophysiological measures of arousal in people who gamble, and assess their relationships with the subjective perception of arousal. WP 2 will examine the influence of risk and ambiguity on the ability of arousal to predict decision making. WP 3, will investigate whether unrelated (‘incidental’) arousal is attributed to the gambling episode and influences decision making in gambling behaviour. Combining computational modeling and psychophysiological measurements is a new experimental approach which will give additional insights in identifying which of these emotional dimensions are perturbed in gambling. The proposed research will have implications for gambling policy, and targeting emotional components in prevention and treatment of gambling addiction.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT ZU KOLN
Net EU contribution
€ 280 751,52
Address
ALBERTUS MAGNUS PLATZ
50931 Koln
Germany
Region
Nordrhein-Westfalen Köln Köln, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)