University of Wuppertal, Gaußstr. 20, 42119, Wuppertal, Germany.
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
J Gambl Stud. 2018 Dec;34(4):1185-1203. doi: 10.1007/s10899-018-9748-0.
This study examines the social contexts of gambling and analyzes social motivations for playing the lottery. We test three sociological approaches simultaneously: network effects, consumption theory, and strain theory. The data used (SOEP-IS, N = 5868 individuals) has several advantages beyond being a large-scale representative sample of the German population. With information on households, we can analyze social network effects while avoiding the problems of egocentric network data. Another benefit of the SOEP-IS is the panel structure. We use the panel structure to improve measurements of strain theory by using the decline in income over time as a measure for it. Our results suggest that the three theories explain different aspects of lottery play. Networks seem to have an influence on lottery play. Having another person in the household playing the lottery is positively associated with both the probability of playing (regularly) and expenditures on lottery tickets. Daydreams and the belief in good luck are positively associated with lottery play as well. Strain theory is confirmed insofar as we find that a decline in income is significantly related to expenditures but not to the probability of playing the lottery. Overall, this study suggests that people play the lottery depending on their social surroundings, their desire to participate in a world normally out of their reach, and the tensions they feel from the distance between their aspirations and their actual social position.
本研究考察了赌博的社会背景，并分析了人们参与彩票游戏的社会动机。我们同时检验了三种社会学方法：网络效应、消费理论和紧张理论。所使用的数据（SOEP-IS，N=5868 个人）具有超越德国人口大规模代表性样本的几个优势。通过家庭信息，我们可以在避免自我中心网络数据问题的同时分析社会网络效应。SOEP-IS 的另一个好处是其面板结构。我们利用面板结构通过随时间推移的收入下降来衡量紧张理论，从而改进对其的测量。我们的结果表明，这三种理论解释了彩票游戏的不同方面。网络似乎对彩票游戏有影响。家庭中有其他人参与彩票游戏与（定期）参与彩票游戏的概率和彩票投注支出呈正相关。白日梦和好运信念也与彩票游戏呈正相关。紧张理论在一定程度上得到了证实，因为我们发现收入下降与支出显著相关，但与参与彩票游戏的概率无关。总的来说，本研究表明，人们参与彩票游戏取决于他们的社会环境、他们参与通常遥不可及的世界的愿望，以及他们的愿望与实际社会地位之间的差距所带来的紧张感。
