Did you know that today, February 6, is International Optimism Day? So says Optimist International, whose slogan is “Hope Lives Here.”
The group has been around since 1968 and part of its mission is to declare the first Thursday in February to be the official annual celebration of a positive outlook.
If you didn’t get the memo, you’re not alone. But it’s a real thing and some have taken notice. For instance, sweepstakes casino RealPrize gave the day a shout-out on social media.
Hope, joy, and positivity are definitely worth celebrating. Optimists uplift those around them. But psychologically speaking, being an optimist is a double-edged sword. Pessimism might seem unpleasant, but a certain amount of negative thinking can help us avoid harm. So, without raining too much on the Optimism Day parade, a quick public service announcement:
Being a persistent optimist puts you at greater risk of gambling harm.
That doesn’t mean that optimists shouldn’t gamble. If you’re feeling lucky on International Optimism Day, by all means, have a quick spin or two on your favorite slots or try something new. But to gamble safely means being aware of your biases… and staying safe will help you stay your shiny, happy, optimistic self.
Gambling while optimistic: what the science says
Optimism vs. pessimism is one of many personality metrics that psychologists are interested in. You can take one example of an Optimism Test at Psychology Today if you’re interested in seeing where you fall. (I scored a 62, somewhere in the middle, which is probably why I’m writing this article.)
Having high optimism has all sorts of advantages. Optimists are more likely to engage in a healthy lifestyle, for instance, and may be more flexible in handling stressful situations or bouncing back from failure.
There’s such thing as too much of a good thing, however, and that applies to attitude as much as anything else. Sometimes, negative thoughts warn us about actual dangers, and we ignore those warnings at our peril. To quote Dr. Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus of Bath Spa University in the United Kingdom:
Although optimism may serve the function to motivate individuals in the present in the service of future goals, excessive optimism may blind individuals to perceive the inherent risk in their present actions, resulting in consequences that individuals might better permit themselves to anticipate.
Her article in the Psychiatric Bulletin, titled Hope, optimism and delusion. points to a number of studies showing connections between high optimism and activities like smoking, risky driving, unprotected sex, and, you guessed it, loss-chasing when gambling.
It makes sense, right? Some amount of optimism is necessary to enjoy gambling in the first place. It’s no fun playing roulette if you’re convinced you’ve lost before the ball even drops. But someone who thinks a huge win is always right around the corner might keep going long after they should have stopped.
Coping with optimism bias at the casino
Many risky gambling habits come from various forms of cognitive bias, which is a fancy way of saying “tricks your mind plays on you.”
I wrote quite a bit about cognitive biases for another site, Bonus.com. One of the ones I mentioned is Optimism Bias. In plain English, that’s when your brain gets mixed up between how much you want something, and how likely it is. A rational person knows that a coin flip is always 50-50. But someone suffering from optimism bias might act as if Heads is much more likely than Tails, if they’re given a reason to hope for Heads.
A French study from 2013 confirmed that most pathological gamblers suffer from optimism bias.
So, if you’re naturally optimistic, what can you do to keep yourself safe at the casino?
- Don’t let belief in luck, fate, or a higher power affect your choice of whether to bet or how much to bet. Your chances of winning are the same as everyone else’s.
- Make decisions with your wallet, not your heart. Set a gambling budget and a time limit, and stick to them.
- Remember that the point of gambling is entertainment. It’s not a way to make money; in the long run, you’re spending money to have fun.
- Learn about the math of the games you’re playing. Knowledge is the antidote to cognitive biases.
- Avoid the “Gambler’s Fallacy,” which is the belief that past results affect future ones. A slot machine is never “due” to hit, random chance doesn’t balance out in the short term, and bad luck doesn’t always guarantee that good luck is coming next.
But with those words of caution out of the way, let me wish you a Happy International Optimism Day, and good luck at the tables… even if luck doesn’t actually exist.
