A talk with psych researcher Paul Delfabbro about cryptocurrency, problem gambling, and addiction. Delfabbro has done a lot of research on problem gambling and on addiction. He’s worked on several papers related to cryptocurrency, including “The psychology of cryptocurrency trading: Risk and protective factors” and “Cryptocurrency trading, gambling and problem gambling.”
Topics discussed include:
- How big a problem is problem gambling amongst cryptocurrency traders?
- What are some of the psych factors that can be present for the more addicted and cult-like crypto behaviors?
- Might covid have played a role in cryptocurrency price fluctuations?
- The role of the internet in amplifying temptations and addictions.
- The role of social media in getting people excited about cryptocurrency.
- Video game addiction.
- Can making a large bet/investment in something affect one’s beliefs (for example, a liberal makes a large bet on Trump to win for purely financial reasons but finds themselves rooting for Trump and therefore seeing the world differently)?
- Day trading and problem gambling.
Episode links:
- iTunes (embedded below)
- Spotify
- Google Play
Other resources related to or mentioned in our talk:
- Paul’s Google Scholar page
- Paper Paul worked on: The psychology of cryptocurrency trading: Risk and protective factors
- Paper Paul worked on: Cryptocurrency trading, gambling and problem gambling
- Paper Paul worked on: The role of structural characteristics in problematic video game play: An empirical study