Abstract
Many adults diagnosed with gambling disorder have demonstrated the near-miss effect: the belief that an outcome that is “close” to a win means a win is coming. Whether children discriminate such outcomes in pregambling games has not yet been investigated. The current study examined the presence of a near miss with 20 children, ages 5 to 10 years, by having them rate the outcomes of a roulette-style arcade game on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (loss) to 5 (win). A one-way repeated measures ANOVA found a significant difference among ratings of losses, near-misses, and wins. Post hoc analyses revealed significant differences between participants’ ratings of wins and losses, wins and near misses, and near misses and losses thus demonstrating the presence of a near miss, as children rated “close” outcomes higher than complete losses but less than wins. Implications for early childhood research and gambling prevention are discussed.
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