According to a new study by Dr. Eugene Chan of the University of Technology, gamblers are far more reckless with their spending at online casinos if they’ve spent time on Facebook prior visiting a gaming site.
The study was published in the journal called Computers in Human Behavior and it advises gamblers to wait at least one hour after they have been checking their Facebook profile before they decide to spend time playing real money casino games. Additionally, Chan claims that this is not the case only with online gambling and that those that play at brick and mortar casinos should be careful as well. The one hour rule, he says, should be applied before engaging in any kind of risk-based monetary activities such as gaming, betting and even investing in the stock market.
The head researcher Chan explains that Facebook users tend to see their friends on the social network as a “cushion” against possible financial loss. His theory says that those who will visit Facebook feel as if their friends might bail them out if any kind of financial investment goes wrong.
This effect was noticed only in participants who had spent some time on their Facebook profile, whereas the people who hadn’t checked Facebook displayed a lower degree of risk tolerance. Chan explained in his study that the act of interacting with online friends is what “activated the financial cushion.”
Even though his research focuses solely on Facebook, he believes that his findings can apply to other social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
Dr. Eugene Chan concluded that his research could lead to governments imposing certain rules on Internet users’ ability to visit online gaming sites directly from Facebook, even though technically speaking that would be a very challenging move.