Going for Broke: Self-Compassion, Risky Decision-Making, and Problem Gambling by Undergraduates

Self-compassionate individuals respond kindly to their own mistakes. Although self-compassion is adaptive in coping with past mistakes, few studies have examined its relationship to risky decision-making in advance. In gambling, an open and understanding disposition toward possible losses could lead to either more or less risky decision-making, and the direction of this relationship could depend on the severity of individuals’ problem gambling. Across 3 laboratory studies with undergraduates, the present research tested how dispositional self-compassion relates to risky decision-making in gambling games, and whether individuals’ severity of problem gambling moderates this relationship. The results suggest that self-compassion has little relationship to gambling decisions by those with no signs of problem gambling already, and that higher self-compassion is associated with taking more gambling risks among undergraduates with low-level or more severe problem gambling. We discuss implications for future research on the complex relationship of self-compassion to risk and well-being.