UBC study proves lights and sounds supersede slot machine odds.
What drives you to play the slot machines? More importantly, what keeps you spinning the reels, betting more money along the way? Chances are, it’s not the odds of actually winning. As we all know, the odds are never in our favor. Slot machines—especially at land-based casinos—traditionally offer the worst payouts. So, what is it that keeps so many players going?
A group of researchers at University of British Columbia thinks they’ve figured it out. It’s something slot machine manufacturers figured out a very long time ago. A lot of you players already know it, too. The problem is, when you’re in the game, your focus is so honed in on the reels, most of us forget or simply ignore such knowledge.
Lights and Sounds Supersede Slot Machine Odds
The UBC research group recently published a gaming study in which they discovered the odds of winning have little or no impact on players; at least, not once the game starts flashing its lights and chiming its bells; the same cues we naturally associate with winning on a slot machine.
The most flamboyant games with intense audiovisual effects are the ones people have the hardest time walking away from. It all boils down to a player’s interpretation of results. In the study, audiovisual effects were used on the games played by half the participants. The other half played games without audiovisual effects.
It’s what UBC researchers call “sensory cues”; catchy sounds and lights that trick the mind into thinking something good has occurred. The subjects who played these games thought they were winning more often, even though they weren’t. And when that happens, players exhibit the urge to bet again, in hopes of triggering the same festivities, despite the negative result.
The scientists also used a model known as “losses disguised as wins”. Most veteran slots players will be familiar with this particular mechanic. Machines have become infamous for setting off their lights and sounds any time a win occurs—even if that win happens to pay less than the amount a player bet.
For example, someone could place a $0.40 wager, and line up a combination that pays just $0.05. The machine lights up, the music plays some festive tune, and the player believes they’ve won. In reality, they’ve lost $0.35.
But when you remove the audiovisual cues, it’s a whole different story. The subjects who participated in games that didn’t use deceptive lights and sounds understood they were losing. According to the study’s results, when machines don’t employ audiovisual “sensory cues” to disguise losses, players are less inclined to continue playing for extended periods of time.
Chimes and Lights keep Slot Machine Players Betting
Lead author Mariya Cherkasova (left) specializes in the study of neurobiological mechanisms, placebo response, and rewards in decision making. She explains how lights and sounds confuse players into thinking they have better slot machine odds.
“We found that an individual’s choices were less guided by the odds of winning when the casino-like audiovisual features were present in our laboratory gambling game,” says Cherkasova.
The results were comparable to previous studies with animals wherein the subjects were primed with “classic conditioning”. The use of lights and/or specific sounds conditioned the animals to expect certain results. They were then proven to invoke riskier behavior from the animals in hopes of achieving the same positive results when those same lights/sounds were active.
