| College students tend to overestimate the frequency and quantity of gambling among their peers, and these misperceptions are associated with increased gambling and related problems. The current study represents an initial step in evaluating the efficacy of an intervention targeting misperceptions of gambling among college students. In addition to self-report, this study used two computer-based risk tasks -- The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and the Pick-A-Card (PAC) task -- framed as "gambling opportunities" in order to assess both cognitive and behavioral change in response to the intervention. Using a randomized clinical trial design, college students who reported gambling within the past 30 days (N = 136; 55% male) were assigned to receive either personalized normative feedback or an attention control task. Perception of gambling norms and analogue gambling task performance was assessed at baseline (pre-intervention) and at two follow-up time points. The results of a series of repeated measures ANOVAs revealed significant group by time interaction effects such that participants who received personalized normative feedback showed a marked decrease from baseline to one-week follow-up in their perception of other students' gambling frequency (F = 73.86, p < .001), annual expenditure (F = 48.45, p < .001), and maximum single day loss ( F = 43.50, p < .001). Significant group by time interaction effects also demonstrated that, compared to participants in the control condition, participants who received personalized normative feedback evinced lower risk-taking at follow-up as indexed by BART pumps per trial (F = 4.07, p = .018), PAC risk coefficient (F = 3.53, p = .03) and PAC total money wagered (F = 3.36, p = .04). Taken together, these lab-based results are promising indicators that personalized normative feedback may modify gambling among college students. Whether it can impact gambling outside of the lab remains untested. |
