Losses disguised as wins (LDWs) are slot machine outcomes where players gain fewer credits than they wager. Despite being losses, slot machines celebrate LDWs with positive sounds and animations, leading gamblers to respond to them as wins. It is unknown how manipulating the sound following LDWs may influence gamblers’ behaviour. In Experiment 1, participants played two conditions on a realistic slot machine simulator: a (standard) positive sound condition (LDWs paired with positive sound, losses paired with silence), and a negative sound condition (LDWs and losses paired with negative sound). We measured participants’ behavioural responses [post-reinforcement pauses (PRPs)], win estimates, and subjective experience. In the negative sound condition, participants behaviourally responded to LDWs in a more loss-like and less win-like fashion, as measured by PRPs. Win estimates were reduced, and subjective experience was significantly impacted, but only when the negative sound condition was played second. In Experiment 2, we employed a much more subtle manipulation, pairing only LDWs with negative sound, and observed similar effects. Through these two experiments, we show that pairing LDWs with negative sound is an effective way to modify players’ responses to LDWs, causing them to respond to them more like the losses they are, rather than the wins they seem.

伪装成胜利（LDW）的损失是老虎机的结果，其中玩家获得的积分少于他们的下注。尽管损失惨重，但老虎机仍通过积极的声音和动画来庆祝LDW，带领赌徒以胜利来回应他们。尚不清楚操纵LDW后的声音如何影响赌徒的行为。在实验1中，参与者在现实的老虎机模拟器上玩了两个条件：（标准）正声音条件（LDW与正声音配对，损耗与静音配对）和负声音条件（LDW与损耗与负声音配对）。我们测量了参与者的行为反应[强化后的停顿（PRP）]，获胜估计和主观体验。在消极的声音条件下，参与者对LDW的行为表现出更多的损失感和较少的胜利感，由PRP衡量。获胜估计会减少，主观体验会受到显着影响，但前提是负面声音条件仅次于播放。在实验2中，我们采用了更为细微的操作，仅将LDW与负声音配对，并观察到了类似的效果。通过这两个实验，我们表明将LDW与负面声音配对是一种有效的方法，可以改变玩家对LDW的反应，使他们对他们的反应更像是损失，而不是看起来的胜利。