The Effect of Skeuomorphic Digital Interfaces on the Illusion of Control over Gambling Outcomes

• Published in: Journal of gambling studies Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 623 - 642
• Main Authors: Meng, Matthew D., Leary, R. Bret
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Community and Environmental Psychology; Economics; Gambling; Games; Horses; Interfaces; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Paper; Psychiatry; Racing; Sociology; Illusion of control; Gambling; Skeuomorphism; Technology; Design interface
• ISSN: 1573-3602; 1573-3602
• DOI: 10.1007/s10899-020-09961-2

The current research focuses on how the use of “skeuomorphs” in digital design interacts with an illusion of control to influence gambling behavior. Skeuomorphism is a design concept in which an aspect of a modern item is made to represent its outdated counterpart, even if this representation serves no functional purpose, such as hands “dealing” cards or horses “racing” on the screen of a digital machine. It is proposed that the inclusion of these non-essential links to physical objects in digital gambling games interacts with a player’s illusion of control over the outcome to influence behavior. Shown across a pretest and three experiments, the inclusion of skeuomorphic elements in the design of gambling games, compared to a minimalistic “flat” design, increases amount gambled. Additionally, skeuomorphism and manipulated illusion of control interact to further increase the amount gambled. The manuscript concludes with a discussion on the practical, theoretical, and policy implications of this research.