Behavioral economics: A unit price analysis of gambling

This study examined the behavioral processes that underlie gambling behavior by applying the concept of unit price from behavioral economics to the experimental study of gambling. Each of ten participants were provided opportunities to gamble under three different experimental conditions representing three distinct methods of formulating the unit price ratio. The three phases varied according to the nature of the methods used to determine the response requirements for gambling and the magnitude of reinforcement. Within each of the three phases, participants responded to six different levels of unit price across nine constituent combinations of response requirement and reinforcer magnitude. Within each phase, the study examined: (1) Whether consumption decreased as unit price increased and (2) Whether consumption was the same at a given unit price regardless of the constituent values that comprised that unit price. Across phases, the design provided information about how different ways of constituting the unit price variable affected the utility of the concept. The results indicated that the accuracy of the unit price predictions was dependent upon the methods used to determine the unit price ratio. Unit price was an effective predictor of consumption for most subjects when the response requirement was a physical task and the reinforcer magnitude involved differing monetary rewards. The predictions of unit price broke down when the response requirement consisted of making payments from a pool of money and under conditions where the reinforcer magnitude was presented in terms of differing probabilities of winning. Overall, the study provided initial support for the inclusion of unit price in the experimental study of gambling and suggested several directions for future research involving the concept.