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Title: Casino Lights Could Be Warping Your Brain To Take Risks, Scientists
Warn

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/21/2...

ScienceAlert reports: Casino lighting could be nudging gamblers to be more
reckless with their money, according to a new study, which found a link
between blue-enriched light and riskier gambling behavior. The extra blue
light emitted by casino decor and LED screens seems to trigger certain
switches in our brains, making us less sensitive to financial losses compared
to gains of equal magnitude, researchers from Flinders University and Monash
University in Australia found... The researchers think circadian
photoreception, which is our non-visual response to light, is playing a part
here. The level of blue spectrum light may be activating specific eye cells
connected to brain regions in charge of decision-making, emotional
regulation, and processing risk versus reward scenarios. "Under conditions
where the lighting emitted less blue, people tended to feel a $100 loss much
more strongly than a $100 gain - the loss just feels worse," [says the
study's lead author, a psychologist at the Flinders Health and Medical
Research Institute]. "But under bright, blue-heavy light such as that seen in
casino machines, the $100 loss didn't appear to feel as bad, so people were
more willing to take the risk...." That raises some questions around ethics
and responsibility, according to the researchers. While encouraging risk
taking might be good for the gambling business, it's not good for the patrons
spending their cash. One professor involved in the study reached this
conclusion. "It is possible that simply dimming the blue in casino lights
could help promote safer gambling behaviors." The research has been published
in Scientific Reports. Thanks to Slashdot reader alternative_right for
sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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