For a long time there are statistics saying that the less a person has income, the more often he gets lottery tickets in the hope of breaking a jackpot or winning a car. And despite the fact that the probability of winning is even less than when playing in a casino, people repeatedly buy for their hard-earned hope for a new life.
Adam Pior's research findings
For example: in the UK National Lottery, the chance to win the main prize is 1: 14000000. Despite such a meager likelihood of getting rich, every week in the UK 32 million people buy an average of three lottery tickets.
The studies of Adam Pior suggest that the human brain is not able to objectively perceive probability coefficients, but can only answer the question: “Yes or no?”. That is, for a person that the possibility of winning theoretically exists, means that you need to play, and luck must smile. If you can win a car, why not try it? The brain of an ancient man also assessed the danger posed by wild animals and the possibility of a successful hunt.
Theory of George Levenshtein
From the point of view of the professor of economics and psychology George Levenshtein, it is always easier for a person to buy a lottery ticket in the hope of receiving a large amount of money or win a car than to make complex mathematical calculations, evaluating the chances of winning. If the calculations are too complicated and confusing, people always choose the answer “yes”, after calling it the “sixth sense”.
When deciding to buy a lottery ticket, the players in their imagination are already spending the money they won, and to win a car seems like a trifle, so the price of the lottery ticket seems negligible compared to future wealth.
Why do people play the lottery?
When the country's economy is in a fever, when the exchange rate fluctuates and prices rise, people lose their sense of control over their lives. Few people are able to predict what the next economic crisis may turn into and keep calm and confidence in the future, watching how the savings are melting. During such periods in all countries there has been a surge in sales of lottery tickets. Again, discounts, promotions, the “Win a Car” contest are standard techniques for increasing the sales of products from various retail chains in the context of a tough battle for several impoverished customers.
And the poorest people are the first to react. It seems to them that there is nothing left to lose, and if you win, you can gain a lot, so the chance to get out of poverty in their eyes costs much more than a few dollars spent on buying a lottery ticket.
Lottery - ancient gambling
In ancient times, the lottery was a kind of way to know the will of the gods in difficult contentious situations. The lot determined whether to pardon or execute, whether the offender is guilty or not, to start a war or to make peace, who will receive the land allotment, and whose family will starve. He, the lot, determined the legislators. In mythology, with his help, a victim was chosen to the Minotaur. And in ancient China, they thought of using a lottery to raise funds to help the poor and to erect the Great Wall of China. Queen Elizabeth in the United Kingdom, using a lottery, raised funds to finance the war.
The mystical side of the lottery
The Latin term lotteria itself is interpreted rather than as an opportunity for monetary or other gain, but as fate or destiny. According to Italian myths, a lottery is a ritual of the distribution of human souls between the bodies of newborn children.
One of the meanings of the word lot is fate, fate, that is, a list of qualities, inclinations, and talents measured to a person at birth. This is the part of fate that cannot be changed, subject only to certain external higher forces and circumstances. For example, it is impossible to choose parents, time of birth, race.
The lottery is sometimes called the tax on stupidity or the victory of hope over common sense. This is due to the incredibly low probability of winning. But romantics will never pass by the bright poster “Promotion! Win a car - and at sea! ” After all, it may be that not everything in this world can be explained by probability theory or mathematical statistics. There is still a lot. And maybe it is prescribed to be rich in it, and you just need to believe it, stop and take wealth by buying a lottery ticket on the way to a boring, unloved job. And if a person is not ready to win, and in the lot he does not have wealth, then the “lucky” money will not be delayed. There are a lot of sad stories about how those who won huge sums in the lottery subsequently lost this money in a casino, became victims of robbers, died from drugs and so on. And where does the math come from? This is their lot.
Therefore, there’s so much advertising for lotteries, promotions, invitations to win a car in 2014, a trip to the islands, a new laptop, etc. After all, the mind calculates the probability, and the soul whispers: “What if!”