Maja Friedemann, Celine A Fox, Anna K Hanlon, Daniel Tighe, Nick Yeung, Claire M Gillan
{"title":"Confidence biases in problem gambling.","authors":"Maja Friedemann, Celine A Fox, Anna K Hanlon, Daniel Tighe, Nick Yeung, Claire M Gillan","doi":"10.1556/2006.2024.00030","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Subjective confidence plays an important role in guiding behaviour, especially when objective feedback is unavailable. Systematic misjudgements in confidence can foster maladaptive behaviours and have been linked to various psychiatric disorders. In this study, we adopted a transdiagnostic approach to examine confidence biases in problem gamblers across three levels: local decision confidence, global task performance confidence, and overall self-esteem. The importance of taking a transdiagnostic perspective is increasingly recognised, as it captures the dimensional nature of psychiatric symptoms that often cut across diagnostic boundaries. Accordingly, we investigated if any observed confidence biases could be explained by transdiagnostic symptom dimensions of Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought. This approach allows us to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role of metacognitive processes in problem gambling, beyond the constraints of traditional diagnostic categories.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Thirty-eight problem gamblers and 38 demographically matched control participants engaged in a gamified metacognition task and completed self-report questionnaires assessing transdiagnostic symptom dimensions.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Compared to controls, problem gamblers displayed significantly elevated confidence at the local decision and global task levels, independent of their actual task performance. This elevated confidence was observed even after controlling for the heightened symptom levels of Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought among the problem gamblers.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The results reveal a notable disparity in confidence levels between problem gamblers and control participants, not fully accounted for by the symptom dimensions Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought. This suggests the contribution of other factors, perhaps linked to gambling-specific cognitive distortions, to the observed confidence biases.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings highlight the intricate link between metacognitive confidence and psychiatric symptoms in the context of problem gambling. It underscores the need for further research into metacognitive biases, which could enhance therapeutic approaches for individuals with psychiatric conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":15049,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral Addictions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11220811/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Behavioral Addictions","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2024.00030","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/6/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Print","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background and aims: Subjective confidence plays an important role in guiding behaviour, especially when objective feedback is unavailable. Systematic misjudgements in confidence can foster maladaptive behaviours and have been linked to various psychiatric disorders. In this study, we adopted a transdiagnostic approach to examine confidence biases in problem gamblers across three levels: local decision confidence, global task performance confidence, and overall self-esteem. The importance of taking a transdiagnostic perspective is increasingly recognised, as it captures the dimensional nature of psychiatric symptoms that often cut across diagnostic boundaries. Accordingly, we investigated if any observed confidence biases could be explained by transdiagnostic symptom dimensions of Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought. This approach allows us to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role of metacognitive processes in problem gambling, beyond the constraints of traditional diagnostic categories.
Methods: Thirty-eight problem gamblers and 38 demographically matched control participants engaged in a gamified metacognition task and completed self-report questionnaires assessing transdiagnostic symptom dimensions.
Results: Compared to controls, problem gamblers displayed significantly elevated confidence at the local decision and global task levels, independent of their actual task performance. This elevated confidence was observed even after controlling for the heightened symptom levels of Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought among the problem gamblers.
Discussion: The results reveal a notable disparity in confidence levels between problem gamblers and control participants, not fully accounted for by the symptom dimensions Anxiety-Depression and Compulsive Behaviour and Intrusive Thought. This suggests the contribution of other factors, perhaps linked to gambling-specific cognitive distortions, to the observed confidence biases.
Conclusion: The findings highlight the intricate link between metacognitive confidence and psychiatric symptoms in the context of problem gambling. It underscores the need for further research into metacognitive biases, which could enhance therapeutic approaches for individuals with psychiatric conditions.
期刊介绍:
The aim of Journal of Behavioral Addictions is to create a forum for the scientific information exchange with regard to behavioral addictions. The journal is a broad focused interdisciplinary one that publishes manuscripts on different approaches of non-substance addictions, research reports focusing on the addictive patterns of various behaviors, especially disorders of the impulsive-compulsive spectrum, and also publishes reviews in these topics. Coverage ranges from genetic and neurobiological research through psychological and clinical psychiatric approaches to epidemiological, sociological and anthropological aspects.