Self-compassionate individuals treat themselves kindly when undergoing stress. The present study examined self-compassion’s relationship to risky decision-making on a gambling task by 240 problem and non-problem gamblers who were tested in a casino setting. Multi-level modeling analyses showed that participants expressed differential rates of learning to avoid risks on the gambling task, depending on their status as potential problem/non-problem gamblers and their level of self-compassion. Among potential problem gamblers, participants higher in self-compassion showed significant gains in performance over decision-making trials, which approximated those of non-problem gamblers and adults without impairments in the population. In contrast, potential problem gamblers lower in self-compassion showed chance levels of performance, which approximated those of adults with impairments. In some circumstances, self-compassion can disinhibit individuals from taking greater risks. For potential problem gamblers in a casino setting, however, the benefits of self-compassion as a means to reinforce self-control appear to outweigh the risks.

有同情心的人在承受压力时会善待自己。本研究通过240个问题和在赌场环境中测试的非问题赌徒，检验了自我同情与赌博任务的风险决策的关系。多层次建模分析表明，参与者表示不同的学习率，以规避赌博任务的风险，这取决于他们作为潜在问题/非问题赌徒的身份以及他们的同情心。在潜在的问题赌徒中，自我同情心较高的参与者表现出比决策试验更高的绩效，这接近于非问题赌徒和没有人口损伤的成年人。相比之下，自我同情心较低的潜在问题赌徒表现出机会水平，这近似于有障碍的成年人。在某些情况下，自我同情会抑制个人承担更大的风险。但是，对于赌场环境中潜在的问题赌徒而言，自我同情作为加强自我控制的手段，其好处似乎超过了风险。