GAMES OF LUCK AND GAMES OF CHANCE - THE EFFECT OF LUCK-ORIENTATION VERSUS CHANCE-ORIENTATION ON GAMBLING DECISIONS

Chance and luck are conceived as two distinct causal agents that effec t different results. The present study examined the proposition that p ersons who habitually attribute the outcome of random events to chance (chance-oriented persons) and those who prefer to attribute such outc omes to luck (luck-oriented persons) cope differently with decision ma king under uncertainty. Chance-oriented persons decide according to gi ven or estimated odds that define the decision problem. Luck-oriented persons, on the other hand, rely on self-attributions of personal luck , and ignore the probabilities of decision outcomes. The hypothesized qualitative difference between the approaches of chance- and luck-orie nted persons to decision making under uncertainty was supported substa ntially by the findings. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.