Fallacious beliefs: gambling specific and belief in the paranormal

Abstract

This thesis presents a series of studies investigating two types of fallacious belief: gambling fallacies (GF) and paranormal beliefs (PB). The first study identifies the errors that constitute GF and critically evaluates instruments designed to measure them. The second study re-evaluates the etiological role of GF in problem gambling using an improved instrument in a longitudinal dataset with results indicating that GF do contribute to problematic gambling, but to a lesser extent than previously supposed and in a bidirectional manner. The third study examines factors associated with susceptibility to GF and compares them to those associated with PB. A very similar set were predictive of both, with most being inherently malleable. The final study, a systematic review, evaluates the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce PB with results indicating that direct examination of the evidentiary basis of PB appears to be effective, although the generalizability of this effect remains uncertain.