This is Why I Don’t Gamble!
The NY Time published a very interesting article a couple days ago called “Forget Logic, Fear Appears to Have Edge”. The overall article is really good, but a small excerpt from it confirmed my theory learned in the movie Two For The Money. Fear has a much faster and, possibly bigger, impact in our brain that our actual… brain!
NY Time excerpt:
Fear is an immensely powerful force, perhaps more so than greed, said Andrew W. Lo, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has studied investor behavior.
Scientists who have studied the brain function have found that the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear, responds faster than the parts of the brain that handle cognitive functions, he said.
“Fear is a much stronger motivational force,” Mr. Lo added. “The loss of $1,000 has a much bigger impact than the gain of a $1,000.”
He cites a series of groundbreaking experiments in the 1970s by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. In one test, they asked students to choose between a sure bet of $3,000, or an 80 percent chance of winning $4,000 (meaning there was a 20 percent chance of winning nothing). Most students said they would take the $3,000.
The same question, framed differently, asked them if they would rather lose $3,000 or accept an 80 percent chance of losing $4,000 (with a 20 percent chance of losing nothing). In this case, they said they would take the riskier bet.
In other words, they were willing to take a bigger risk to avoid losing money than they were when they stood to make more money.
Those instincts seem to be taking over.
Excerpt from Two For The Money:
WALTER (Played by Al Pacino)
I’ve listened to thousands of sob stories by people like Leon here, and I gotta say, Leon — if I learned one thing it’s that gambling is not your problem.
LEON
It’s not?
WALTER
Not even close. You’re a lemon. Like a bad car, there’s something inherently defective in you. And you. And me! All of us here — we’re lemons! Big, juicy, acidic, ice-tea flavoring lemons! We look like everyone else but we’re defective because when most people make a bet they want to win, while we, the degenerate gamblers of the world, we’re subconsciously playing to lose. All humans like going to the edge of the abyss, but what makes us different is we go all the way and hurl ourselves off into the void! And we like doing it so much we do it time after time after time! Me? I always felt most alive when they were raking away the chips, and every one here knows what I’m talking about.
People like us, even when we win, it’s just a matter of time before we give it all back. But when we lose, and I mean the kind of loss that makes your asshole pucker to the size of a decimal point, there’s a moment when you’re standing there and you’ve just recreated the worst possible nightmare this side of malignant cancer for the 20th goddamn time and you suddenly realize — hey, I’m still here, I’m still breathing, I’m still alive! In order to really live you have to be aware of your own mortality — and a losing bet of a certain size is one of the best ways
WALTER CON’D
I know of getting that feeling. When you win, you defy death, but when you lose, you survive it, and that’s remarkable!
Us lemons, we fuck shit up on purpose! We need to constantly remind ourselves that we’re alive! Gambling’s not the problem, Leon, your fucked up need to feel something, to convince yourself you exist, to test what’s really real, that’s the problem!
I know this sounds almost corny, I am referencing a movie and a very serious article from the NY Times! Even though that movie wasn’t the best one I’ve seen in my life, it actually made me understand what science now confirmed!
I knew it, I knew it!!! :)
Now it also proves that we can very easily control and overcome our fears. Even though fear has that edge, our brain’s logic will always be more powerful. But, we also have to understand why we actually fear something!
And yes, you all might think from my title that I actually had a gambling problem. Nope, I actually never really lost at gambling, and that’s because I never really played either. My fear of losing is so much bigger than my fear of winning that I don’t gamble overall, I strategize. Same for my investments. Finished those foolish days of investing during bubbles. I love Warren Buffet, he taught me so much!
NY Time article found via Julia Allison.
