Odds are that gambling’s a genetic trait, study shows

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

 The Straits Times

 It was reported that a study by Professor Chew Soo Hong from NUS’ Department of Economics and Professor Richard Ebstein from NUS’ Department of Psychology and their collaborators from University of California, Berkeley and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found that strategic decisions made in a competitive betting game were influenced by five genes that regulate dopamine, a chemical released in the brain that signals pleasure and motivates people to seek rewards. The study revealed how people have hardwired biases in decision-making and strategic thinking that can impact business decisions. The findings were published on 16 June in the online edition of the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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