Michael Wohl

Carleton University · Department of Psychology

Objective: Prior research has shown a moderately positive association between financially focused self-concept and disordered gambling. Because most prior research was cross-sectional, it is unclear whether financially focused self-concept contributes to the onset and maintenance of disordered gambling whether a financially focused self-concept is...

Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess factors (i.e., emotion regulation, impulsivity) that motivate in-play sports betting. Specifically, we examined whether individuals report increased excitement after placing an in-play bet and whether trait negative and positive urgency moderate the effect of emotion regulation motives on in-pla...

Nostalgic reverie (i.e. sentimental longing) has received increased attention as a predictor of health and well‐being, but only a handful of reviews have summarized this literature. The available reviews (Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 19 , 2020, 330; Intimations of nostalgia: Multidisciplinary explorations of...

We tested the hypothesis that perceived existential threat stemming from COVID-19 elicits anxious arousal, which can manifest in prejudice toward the perceived source of the threat (Chinese people). Americans (n = 474) were randomly assigned to a condition in which COVID-19 was framed as a high existential threat to the United States or to a condit...

Background: Depressive symptoms are common in patients seeking medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD treatment) and decrease quality of life but have been inconsistently related to opioid treatment outcomes. Here, we explore whether depressive symptoms may only be related to adverse treatment outcomes among individuals reporting high...

Tseng, Flack, Caudwell, and Stevens (2023) conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)—a gold-standard measure of disordered gambling symptomatology that has traditionally been indexed using a total score—with data from a large representative sample of Australians residing in Northern Territory who gam...

Considerable debate has focused on whether pre-commitment to a money and/or time limit and adherence to that limit should be mandatory or voluntary. A unique feature of Ontario Lottery and Gaming’s player management system (My PlaySmart) provides a middle ground by allowing players to select whether they are permitted to continue playing once their...

While public health crises such as the coronavirus pandemic transcend national borders, practical efforts to combat them are often instantiated at the national level. Thus, national group identities may play key roles in shaping compliance with and support for preventative measures (e.g., hygiene and lockdowns). Using data from 25,159 participants...

Group history provides the experiential building blocks that shape social identity. When contemporary events are perceived as having created (or creating) a discontinuity with that history, collective nostalgia is likely to be elicited. Importantly, collective nostalgia is functional-it consolidates social identity, motivating group members to supp...

Although problematic cannabis use is a public health concern, little is known about lower-risk cannabis use beliefs and behaviors. A major stumbling block for research in this domain has been the lack of a methodologically sound, multidimensional measure of lower-risk cannabis beliefs and behaviors. This paper reports the development of the Cannabi...

Financially focused self-concept has been linked to gambling problems among people who gamble. Herein, we examined the bifactor structure of the 20-item financially focused self-concept scale (FFS), which includes one global factor and four grouping factors (self-views, feelings, interpersonal relationships, achievement). We examined the convergent...

Although responsible gambling tools help to minimize gambling-related harms, operators have had difficulty motivating players to use such tools. In two studies, we assessed whether incentivizing players to use responsible gambling tools (by way of loyalty program points) will increase both willingness to use the tools and attitudinal loyalty (i.e.,...

In the current rapid evidence assessment, we summarize the existing research on lower-risk cannabis consumption as understood by those who consume cannabis. We identified 7111 unique articles published between 1900 and 2021 using search terms related to a) cannabis consumption, b) beliefs and behaviors, and c) positive outcomes. Twelve articles met...

Social casino games have achieved widespread popularity, and are accessed by more than 85 million people each day. Yet, why people play social casino games is largely unknown. To address this gap, an inductive approach was taken to better understand the motives for playing social casino games, as well as the motives for transitioning from social ca...

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied ma...

In this 28-country study (N = 6112), we assessed how subjective perceptions and objective indicators of wealth were associated with majority group members’ perceptions of realistic threat related to immigration. Subjective wealth was assessed by individuals’ perceptions of their personal wealth (current/anticipated) and of their country´s wealth, w...

This research draws on the model of positive play (i.e. responsible gambling) to investigate whether positive play beliefs (e.g. accurate understanding about the odds of success on games of chance) and behavior (e.g. setting a limit on gambling expenditures) are associated with attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty. Results from Study 1 indica...

Social casino games have achieved widespread popularity, and are accessed by more than 85 million people each day. Yet, why people play social casino games is largely unknown. To address this gap, an inductive approach was taken to better understand the motives for playing social casino games, as well as the motives for transitioning from social ca...

U.S.-based research suggests conservatism is linked with less concern about contracting coronavirus and less preventative behaviors to avoid infection. Here, we investigate whether these tendencies are partly attributable to distrust in scientific information, and evaluate whether they generalize outside the U.S., using public data and recruited re...

The geospatial impact of casinos on gambling problems is poorly understood, despite its importance to policy decisions. In this study, we propose a conceptual model to describe how access relates to gambling problems and we test whether access convenience increases risk. We collect a large sample of Canadian gamblers (n = 6,234) and geolocate each...

An increasing number of epidemiologic studies have identified trust as a social determinant of COVID-19 mortality. Trust influences public compliance with policies aimed at containing the pandemic through physical distancing, wearing masks, and vaccine uptake. However, whilst some forms of trust are public assets (e.g., trust in government), others...

The current study examined the emotional and cognitive evaluations as well as the perceived efficacy of fear-based, text-only pop-up messages. The pop-up messages were presented when viewing a 3-minute pre-recorded video of an online roulette play. Fifty-nine people who gamble online viewed both low- and high-threat messages that reflected, by rand...

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and str...

In the Pathways Model, there are three distinct etiological subtypes of disordered gambling (Behaviourally Conditioned, Emotionally Vulnerable, and Anti-Social Impulsive Risk-Taker). The Pathways Model also posits that erroneous gambling beliefs are a maintenance factor of disordered gambling across the subtypes. Yet, etiological factors and errone...

This study examined online gambling behavior during COVID-19 land-based gambling restrictions and associations with changes in mental health, impacts on household income due to the pandemic, financially focused motivations, and symptoms of gambling problems. A repeated online survey was administered to adult gamblers in Ontario, Canada. Wave 1 was...

People experience “collective autonomy restriction” when they believe other groups want to restrict their own group from freely expressing its social identity and determining its behavior. We review emerging research on the negative consequences of collective autonomy restriction for well-being, as well as its implications for group members' motiva...

People experience “collective autonomy restriction” when they believe other groups want to restrict their own group from freely expressing its social identity and determining its behavior. We review emerging research on the negative consequences of collective autonomy restriction for well-being, as well as its implications for group members’ motiva...

Coniglio, Cooper, and Selby proposed that behavioral reinforcement may be critical for understanding the etiology and maintenance of pathological exercise among people living with anorexia nervosa. They presented three competing hypotheses about why exercise can become problematic: (a) positive reinforcement via biological and behavioral rewards, (...

Inspired by calls for a greater integration of personality and social psychology, we tested whether personality traits (measured using the HEXACO model) predicted the expression of collective nostalgia—a group-based emotion that reflects sentimental longing for the past of one's social group. Results of a representative sample study conducted among...

Background and aims Perfectionism, a focused self-concept, and erroneous beliefs have been implicated in the development and maintenance of various disordered behaviors. However, researchers have yet to examine how these factors combine to explain different disordered behaviors. Herein, we addressed this gap and hypothesized a moderated-mediation m...

Persons maintaining a financially focused self-concept view financial success as a core aspect of their respective self-concepts. Herein, we examined whether the measurement properties of the financially focused self-concept scale (FFS) are invariant over time. A sample of predominantly older community members who gamble (N = 147) completed the 4-i...

Self-forgiveness is typically understood as a process that prevents continued engagement in negative behavior. However, it can also have a dark side in that it can lead to continuing that negative behavior. In the current research, we examined self-forgiveness in the domain of overspending—a potentially self-harming behavior. We tested whether self...

A growing body of evidence suggests that support for a strong non-democratic leader is driven, in part, by low economic development and economic inequality at the country level, and low income and interpersonal trust at the individual level. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that although such a pattern predicts support for a strong...

U.S.-based research suggests conservatism is linked with less concern about contracting coronavirus and less preventative behaviors to avoid infection. Here, we investigate whether these tendencies are partly attributable to distrust in scientific information, and evaluate whether they generalize outside the U.S., using public data and recruited re...

U.S.-based research suggests conservatism is linked with less concern about contracting coronavirus and less preventative behaviors to avoid infection. Here, we investigate whether these tendencies are partly attributable to distrust in scientific information, and evaluate whether they generalize outside the U.S., using public data and recruited re...

E. J. Langer's paper, 'The illusion of control' (1975), showed that people act in ways that suggest they hold illusory beliefs in their ability to control the outcome of chance-determined games. This highly cited paper influenced the emerging field of gambling studies, and became a building block for cognitive approaches to problem gambling. Over t...

Background and aims: Casino loyalty programs are marketing strategies designed to foster attitudinal (i.e., identification and satisfaction) and behavioral (i.e., spending) loyalty among gamblers by offering rewards to members. Casino loyalty programs use a tier-based structure to segment members who spend more money into higher tiers, where they...

The racial demographic shift occurring in many Western countries provides a unique context to study the reactions of a high-power group (White people) to the potential loss of their privileged position in society. Three experiments ( N = 77, N = 302, N = 555) conducted in Canada, the US, and the UK showed that White people who are reminded about th...

The present research explored whether people in recovery from an eating disorder (ED) engage in nostalgic reverie for their past disordered eating (e.g., receiving compliments on thin appearance) and whether such nostalgizing is related to recovery and relapse. Critically, nostalgia has yet to be meaningfully incorporated into theories of EDs. For...

Many video games incorporate gambling-like elements into their design (and vice versa). Social casino games—a type of video game that mimics gambling activities—are one such example. In the current experimental research, we examined whether offering tangible rewards (i.e., rewards with value outside the game) in a social casino game was associated...

There is evidence that democracies are under threat around the world while the quest for strong leaders is increasing. Although the causes of these developments are complex and multifaceted, here we focus on one factor: the extent to which citizens express materialist and post-materialist concerns. We explore whether objective higher levels of demo...

The idea of heritability may have consequences for individuals’ sense of self by connecting identity to the actions of others who happen to share genetic ties. Across seven experimental studies (total N = 2,628), recalling morally bad or good actions by family members influenced individuals’ moral self among those who endorse a lay belief that mora...

Collective nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion that reflects sentimental longing for valued aspects of the past of one’s group. Given that conservatism is typically associated with a general desire to preserve the societal status quo or return society to its traditional way of being, nostalgia has been theorized to be characteristic of those on the...

We examined the idea that endorsement of state-level restrictive language policies can be understood as an ingroup-preserving behaviour driven by majority group members’ experiences of linguistic-based collective angst (i.e., concern about the future vitality of the ingroup’s language). We did so in the context of legislative reform aimed to enforc...

The idea of heritability may have consequences for individuals’ sense of self by connecting identity to the actions of others who happen to share genetic ties. Across seven experimental studies (total N=2,628), recalling morally bad or good actions by family members influenced individuals’ moral self among those who endorse a lay belief that moral...

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the closure of licensed casinos throughout the United States of America in March and April 2020. This study sought to examine how Americans who gamble responded to the COVID-19 lockdown, including migration to online gambling, and changes in substance use and use of other technologies. On April 9, 2020, we recruited...

Purpose of Review People can place preponderant importance on a single life domain (e.g., relationships, appearance, financial success). The result is that success (or failure) in that domain has significant influence on the self-concept and thus judgments of self-worth. A focused self-concept has also been shown to be a core feature of various psy...

An emerging literature suggests that the success of social movements dependent, partly, on its ability to garner support from third‐party groups. One factor that appears to predict support is the social movement’s use of non‐violent (compared to violent) strategies to achieve its goals. However, this literature is not definitive. Herein, we report...

Having a self-concept that is focused on a single life domain has been implicated in various emotional and behavioral disorders, including depression, body image disorders, and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Herein, we extended research on having a focused self-concept by testing the idea that a self-concept focused on financial succes...

In this 28-country study (N = 6112), we assessed how subjective perceptions and objective indicators of wealth were associated with majority group members’ perceptions of realistic threat related to immigration. Subjective wealth was assessed by individuals’ perceptions of their personal wealth (current/anticipated) and of their country´s wealth, w...

People with a financially focused self-concept overvalue the importance of financial success for self-definition and self-worth. Herein, we examined whether the measurement properties of the financially focused self-concept scale (FFS) are invariant over time and across different demographic groups of people who gamble. We also assessed the tempora...

Two studies tested the idea that perceived normalization of radical political ideologies (right and left) reduces support for freedom of speech of the opponents and political tolerance. In Study 1 ( N = 633), Americans were primed with the normalization of the radical right or left. Primed with the normalization of radical outgroup ideologies, both...

There is substantial cross-national variation in the damage caused by COVID-19 and scant evidence on social and cultural factors that contribute to this variation. Our ecologic study of country differences in COVID-19 mortality found that deaths have increased faster in societies that had less confidence in state institutions and less civic engagem...

Across four studies, we tested whether the content of collective nostalgia has untapped utility for understanding intergroup relations. In Study 1a, we demonstrated variance in the content of the nostalgizing American Christians report—variance that influenced attitudes towards outgroups. Participants who reported longing for a more open society ex...

Social casino games (i.e., online, free to play casino-like games) share many similar visual, auditory and structural game mechanics as gambling games. Given the similarities between the two activities, it is not uncommon for people to migrate from social casino gaming to gambling or vice versa. In the current work, we investigated whether motives...

Can social contextual factors explain international differences in the spread of COVID-19? It is widely assumed that social cohesion, public confidence in government sources of health information and general concern for the welfare of others support health advisories during a pandemic and save lives. We tested this assumption through a time-series...

In this article, we summarize recent research on collective angst (i.e., concern for one’s group’s future vitality) and collective nostalgia (i.e., sentimental longing for the in-group’s past) and emphasize their interconnections and predictive utility. We also put forth the supposition that the source of the collective angst that group members are...

At present, the dominant motivational strategy to facilitate behavior change among those living with addiction is to focus one’s attention on the better possible future that may result from cutting down or cessation. However, research is now emerging that suggests nostalgic reverie (i.e., sentimental longing) for life lived before addiction can als...

Objective. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered the closure of licensed casinos throughout North America in Spring 2020. This study sought to examine how gamblers responded to the COVID-19 lockdown, including migration to online gambling, and changes in substance use and use of other technologies. Method. We conducted an online cross-sectional study of...

This chapter presents an integrated model of psychological needs among victimized groups, building on self-determination theory. Extending the model of needs-based reconciliation and other work on needs among victim groups, the authors posit that collective victimization frustrates basic needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. They review...

Diverse funding sources, including the government, nonprofit, and industry sectors support academic research, generally, and gambling research, specifically. This funding allows academic researchers to assess gambling-related problems in populations, evaluate tools designed to encourage responsible gambling behaviors, and develop evidence-based rec...

In three experiments, we tested whether LGBTQ+ individuals experience greater psychological well-being when they feel other groups support (versus restrict) their community's collective autonomy to express its social identity. LGBTQ+ individuals recruited from a Canadian city (Experiment 1a, N=114), and nationally from the United States (Experiment...

In three experiments, we tested whether LGBTQ+ individuals experience greater psychological well-being when they feel other groups support (versus restrict) their community's collective autonomy to express its social identity. LGBTQ+ individuals recruited from a Canadian city (Experiment 1a), and nationally from the United States (Experiment 1b), r...

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here...

We tested the hypothesis that perceived existential threat of COVID-19 elicits anxious arousal, which can manifest in prejudice toward the perceived source of the threat (Chinese people). Americans (n = 474) were randomly assigned to an experimental condition in which COVID-19 was framed as an existential threat to the United States or a non-existe...

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive, global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behavior change and poses significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences are critical for optimizing pandemic response. Here we review relevant research from a diversity of research areas rel...

The Positive Play Scale (PPS) is a self-report measure that assesses responsible gambling beliefs and behaviors amongst players. The PPS was shown to be a reliable and valid measure that consisted of four subscales: Personal Responsibility, Gambling Literacy, Honesty and Control, and Pre-commitment. However, the PPS development research had limitat...

Here, we integrate two influential psychological theories: social-identity theory and self-determination theory. Whereas social-identity theory considers how social identities impact the self, self-determination theory elucidates the psychological necessity of feeling related, competent, and autonomous. In this article, we outline and provide justi...

Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community s...

Public apologies struggle to communicate genuineness. Previous studies have shown that, in response to public apologies, perceptions of remorse and levels of forgiveness are often low, while skepticism about motive is high. Furthermore, attempts to reduce mistrust of public apologies by manipulating the verbal component of the message have had limi...

Background and aims: In the present research, we experimentally investigated whether the experience of winning (i.e., inflated payout rates) in a social casino game influenced social casino gamers' subsequent decision to gamble for money. Furthermore, we assessed whether facets of dispositional impulsivity - negative and positive urgency in partic...

The current research tested the idea that monetary limit adherence is upregulated by informing players how much money and credits they lost gambling when their limit was reached. In Study 1, players (N = 124) at a local gambling venue gambled on a virtual Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) with a pre-determined money limit. By way of a pop-up message,...