Cognitive distortions and gambling behaviors: which comes first? Analyzing the relationships between superstitious believes and pathological gambling

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore if and which specific cognitive biases play a role in pathological gambling. Method: We recruited 343 participants, divided in two groups: I) 79 pathological gamblers and II) 264 no problematic gamblers. Data were analyzed using a series of analyses of variance and a series of linear regression analyses. Results: Data showed that the dimensions of cognitive bias explained a significant amount of the variance in pathological gambling; besides results indicated that the severity of gambling problems was positively associated with the strength of all cognitive biases considered, also after controlling age and gender. In particular results underlined that gambling behaviors seem to be more related to the expectation that gambling is the only way to cope with stress gaming (Gambling Expectancies), and to the gamblers feelings that they are unable to stop gambling (Perceived Inability to Stop Gambling). Conclusions: Our results are consistent with those of previous studies that showed a link between cognitive biases and gambling behaviors. Further investigation on this topic are needed to study the role