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Hugo Mercer

PhD Student

Email: h.j.a.mercer@qmul.ac.uk

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Project Title: Know when to fold ‘em: “Investigating the role of identity in reducing gambling participation and harms

Summary: Gambling, the act of wagering something of value upon a game or event with an uncertain outcome, is a highly lucrative industry in the UK, with gambling operators netting a collective gross yield of 14 billion pounds in 2022. Although gambling is not inherently problematic to most individuals, some individuals may encounter difficulties or even addiction in relation to their gambling behaviours. Problem gambling, where these behaviours have become persistent and maladaptive, affects roughly 1.3% of the general population, and has been associated with multiple negative outcomes including reduced quality of life and increased risk of illegal behaviour and suicide.

To gain insights into what can be done to reduce these behaviours and their related harms, this PhD project will draw on the social identity approach to health (SIAH). According to this approach, individuals’ social connections (i.e., group memberships, relationships) are an important source of identity, which provide individuals with the meaning, belonging, purpose, and support that can influence their behaviours and shape their physical and mental health. As such, it may be that how individuals who gamble think about themselves, and their connections to other people (e.g., gamblers, family, friends), are implicated in gambling behaviours and associated outcomes.

To investigate this idea, this project will first replicate and extend past research on gambling identification and problematic gambling and harms to understand the components of identity that are implicated in these outcomes before analysing secondary datasets (e.g., Understanding Society, DCMS Taking Part Survey) to identify whether social or other factors (e.g., connections, related identities, risk-taking) may provide a potential avenue for explaining existing relationships. If viable, findings will be used to design subsequent studies (e.g., surveys, experiments) to test what explains the link between gambling identification and gambling behaviours and propose what might facilitate a reduction in problem gambling and its associated harms.   

Supervisor:

Research

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