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How casinos distract

blog.ketyov.com

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Re: How casinos distract

#21

Post by jeff18 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

"There's a well-known study by Shiv and Fedorikhin showing that if you tax people's working memory by making them remember a 7-digit string of numbers, people are more likely to make a less-optimal decision (they chose to eat chocolate cake versus the more healthy fruit salad option)." I'm not sure how the Shiv experiment proves anything. I personally would always choose the chocolate cake, no matter how much time I…

If we can't give peer-reviewed, easily repeatable experiments the benefit of the doubt, we are in trouble.

Re: How casinos distract

#22

Post by geoka9 »

einhverfr wrote: post #12
gojomo wrote: post #6

The sensory overload both attracts an audience to the spectacle, and interrupts normal rational thinking. A double win! But, interestingly, you can see the place differently if you change the 'soundtrack'. If you're in Las Vegas and have a good set of ear-sealing headphones – for example rubber earbuds – try listening to your own choice of music while strolling around. It creates sufficient detachment to let you view…

One thing I suspect that is missing in both the above assessment and the article is that if you interrupt normal thinking with overload, and you force focus on something, you get the beginnings of a hypnotic, or at least quasi-hypnotic state. That state is familiar in computer games, and it is the same thing I see in casinos (disclaimer: I haven't spent any significant time gambling in them but some do have good food…

I am less convinced by the color scheme arguments, since colors associations are extremely culturally bound.

My thoughts too. Looks like the color choices in that color wheel are arbitrary. I tried searching for information on why the colors in that wheel are associated with the emotions the way they are, but couldn't find any.

Re: How casinos distract

#23

Post by rbarooah »

jeff18 wrote: post #21
TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

"There's a well-known study by Shiv and Fedorikhin showing that if you tax people's working memory by making them remember a 7-digit string of numbers, people are more likely to make a less-optimal decision (they chose to eat chocolate cake versus the more healthy fruit salad option)." I'm not sure how the Shiv experiment proves anything. I personally would always choose the chocolate cake, no matter how much time I…

If we can't give peer-reviewed, easily repeatable experiments the benefit of the doubt, we are in trouble.

You don't think we're in trouble?

Re: How casinos distract

#24

Post by brk »

einhverfr wrote: post #12
gojomo wrote: post #6

The sensory overload both attracts an audience to the spectacle, and interrupts normal rational thinking. A double win! But, interestingly, you can see the place differently if you change the 'soundtrack'. If you're in Las Vegas and have a good set of ear-sealing headphones – for example rubber earbuds – try listening to your own choice of music while strolling around. It creates sufficient detachment to let you view…

One thing I suspect that is missing in both the above assessment and the article is that if you interrupt normal thinking with overload, and you force focus on something, you get the beginnings of a hypnotic, or at least quasi-hypnotic state. That state is familiar in computer games, and it is the same thing I see in casinos (disclaimer: I haven't spent any significant time gambling in them but some do have good food…

I am less convinced by the color scheme arguments, since colors associations are extremely culturally bound.

Not to mention the relatively high occurrence of some amount of color blindness in males.

Re: How casinos distract

#25

Post by TeMPOraL »

jeff18 wrote: post #21
TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

"There's a well-known study by Shiv and Fedorikhin showing that if you tax people's working memory by making them remember a 7-digit string of numbers, people are more likely to make a less-optimal decision (they chose to eat chocolate cake versus the more healthy fruit salad option)." I'm not sure how the Shiv experiment proves anything. I personally would always choose the chocolate cake, no matter how much time I…

If we can't give peer-reviewed, easily repeatable experiments the benefit of the doubt, we are in trouble.

I'd love to, but in case of psychology, many of them (or, conclusions drawn from them) just sound plain nonsense.

EDIT: I'm searching for original paper on Shiv experiment. It might be that cognitive load makes our decision less rational, but I'm not buying choosing salad over cake as a rationality test.

EDIT2: Found it.

http://www.mendeley.com/research/heart-and-mind-in-conflict-...

It seems that they also asked people to rate the rationality of their choice - whether they believe the cake/salad is good for health, a wise choice, etc. Given this data the result and conclusions sound a bit more reasonable.

I try to trust peer reviewed papers (if we can't trust them, what can we trust?), but I also try to keep my bullshit meter well calibrated. There's enough of pseudo-scientific "knowledge" circulating around. Just look at 7-38-55 (spoken-voice-body language) "rule of communication" and 'cone of learning' ("we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, ...") - it gets repeated around all the time, but if you think of it, it makes no sense. And, in fact, it's totally not true. It's just a result of a big misinterpretation of some scientific studies.

Re: How casinos distract

#26

Post by nikcub »

Enough people know of these techniques that there are now casinos that are aimed at the crowd who are sick of the standard type of casino. An example is Encore in Vegas - floor to ceiling windows, clocks, no cheap funny business, etc.(if you ever go to Vegas I recommend it thoroughly)

So there is a business in not being like the other businesses.

Re: How casinos distract

#27

Post by joezydeco »

nonce43 wrote: post #9

Slot machines use a bunch of interesting psychological techniques. They are set up to produce "near misses", where the reels show you almost win, with the winning symbol just below the pay line. They create losses that appear as wins - you win less than you put in, so it feels like a win even though you lost money. They use a mapping so the odds of a reel stopping on something good are less than its physical fraction…

You can thank Inge Telnaes and his virtual reel patent for this. It changed the industry in the late 80s and early 90s.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=G4YzAAAAEBAJ&printsec=f...

Re: How casinos distract

#28

Post by sorbits »

NPR’s Planet Money did an interview with Gary Loveman who used to be an economics professor at Harvard Business School and now runs Ceasars Entertainment Corporation.

He describes some of the stuff they actually do: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/11/15/142366953/the-tues...

Gave me a more positive view of casinos as Gary Loveman comes off as seeing himself in the business of selling customers “having a good time” and works hard to ensure that his customers leave the casino feeling they indeed had, which may require e.g. giving gift cards or similar to customers who are on a losing streak.

Re: How casinos distract

#29

Post by dhughes »

joezydeco wrote: post #27
nonce43 wrote: post #9

Slot machines use a bunch of interesting psychological techniques. They are set up to produce "near misses", where the reels show you almost win, with the winning symbol just below the pay line. They create losses that appear as wins - you win less than you put in, so it feels like a win even though you lost money. They use a mapping so the odds of a reel stopping on something good are less than its physical fraction…

You can thank Inge Telnaes and his virtual reel patent for this. It changed the industry in the late 80s and early 90s. http://www.google.com/patents?id=G4YzAAAAEBAJ&printsec=f...

Exactly, there are (usually) 22 stops on a reel, a real reel, but video can have 100 stops; this includes the blank spaces.

If you're curious just search for "PAR sheet" or "payable and reel sheet".

Re: How casinos distract

#30

Post by dhughes »

I work in a small casino in Canada and I bet I could put a slot machine in a giant room with nothing else in it and people would still play it.

But there has to be money involved nobody will play if money can't be won, it's not the slot machine or deck of cards it's the gambling.

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