Investigates the paradox of why a large proportion of the population engages in some form of gambling, despite the knowledge that they are most likely to lose, and even when they know that the gambling industry makes huge profits. Do gamblers simply accept their losses as fate or do they believe that they will be able to overcome the negative odds in some miraculous way? best the systematic losses cannot be avoided, are the least likely to stop gambling. Detailed analysis of actual gambling behaviour has shown that gamblers are the victims of a variety of cognitive illusions, which lead them to believe that the general statistical rules determining the probability of loss do not apply to them as individuals.
Annotation. "In this compelling title, two distinguished scholars share their experiences as expert witnesses in cases ranging from eyewitness testimony, person identification and recovered memories, to false confessions, collaborative storytelling and causal attribution, in the context of various interrogation techniques and their ability to deliver reliable results. Each chapter of The Popular Policeman and Other Cases describes in lucid, entertaining prose a representative case in the context of scholarly literature to date, showing how psychological expertise has been (and can be) used in a legal setting." "The cases include petty and serious crime, from illegal gambling, infringed trademarks and risque courtship behaviour, to honour killing and death on the climbing wall. The authors' findings and recommendations apply to legal systems worldwide." "There is no other English-language textbook covering a similarly wide range of offences, and this volume will fill a gap in the existing literature and demonstrate how psychological expertise can be used in a much larger area than is often realised."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Why does a large proportion of the population engage in some form of gambling, although they know they are most likely to lose, and that the gambling industry makes huge profits? Do gamblers simply accept their losses as fate, or do they believe that they will be able to overcome the negative odds in some miraculous way? The paradox is complicated by the fact that those habitual gamblers who are most aware that systematic losses cannot be avoided, are the least likely to stop gambling. Detailed analyses of actual gambling behaviour have shown gamblers to be victims of a variety of cognitive illusions, which lead them to believe that the general statistical rules of determining the probability of loss do not apply to them as individuals. The designers of gambling games cleverly exploit these illusions in order to promote a false perception of the situation. Much of the earlier interest in gambling behaviour has been centred on the traditional theories of human decision-making, where decisions are portrayed as choices among bets. This led to a tradition of studying decision-making in experiments on betting. In this title, originally published in 1988, the author argues that betting behaviour should not be used as a typical example of human decision-making upon which a general psychological theory could be founded, and that these traditional views can in no way account for the gambling behaviour reported in this book.
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