The current research focuses on how the use of “skeuomorphs” in digital design interacts with an illusion of control to influence gambling behavior. Skeuomorphism is a design concept in which an aspect of a modern item is made to represent its outdated counterpart, even if this representation serves no functional purpose, such as hands “dealing” cards or horses “racing” on the screen of a digital machine. It is proposed that the inclusion of these non-essential links to physical objects in digital gambling games interacts with a player’s illusion of control over the outcome to influence behavior. Shown across a pretest and three experiments, the inclusion of skeuomorphic elements in the design of gambling games, compared to a minimalistic “flat” design, increases amount gambled. Additionally, skeuomorphism and manipulated illusion of control interact to further increase the amount gambled. The manuscript concludes with a discussion on the practical, theoretical, and policy implications of this research.

中文翻译：

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拟态数字接口对控制赌博结果的错觉的影响

当前的研究集中在数字设计中“拟形文字”的使用如何与控制幻觉相互作用，从而影响赌博行为。拟态是一种设计概念，其中，现代物品的一个方面被用来代表其过时的对应物，即使这种代表没有任何功能性目的，例如手“处理”卡片或马“竞赛”在数字计算机的屏幕上。建议在数字赌博游戏中包含这些与物理对象的非必要链接，这与玩家控制结果以影响行为的幻想有关。在预测试和三个实验中显示，与简约的“扁平”设计相比，赌博游戏设计中包含拟形元素增加了赌博量。此外，拟态与操纵的控制错觉相互作用，进一步增加了赌博量。该手稿以对本研究的实践，理论和政策意义的讨论作为结尾。