Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/439

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 423

with their dice on their lots testify of the indigenous and ubiquitous character of gambling. The French, Germans, and English are scarcely less given to the prac- tice of gambling than the older peoples first mentioned. The prevailing forms are the dice of the old time and the more recently popularized lottery. The attraction of the chance seems to have continued throughout the history of man, and the desperate stakes placed testify to the spell this charm has over man. The American Indians will not only lose all their possessions, but also will stake their wives and children, and even their own liberty. The Senecas had a popular belief that a certain gambling game would be enjoyed by them in the future life of the Great Spirit. The Malays of Sumatra, the Javanese, the Sulus are all addicted to desperate playing of chance games. The passion is nowhere else so strong as among savage and barbarous races. But both the universality and the desperate enchantment of the passion are remarkable.

The universality and the gradations of this disposition toward chance, risk, are seen in the various forms of hazard, from the commonplace remark, " I will risk not taking my umbrella," to the fearful staking of one's very life. An analysis of the replies obtained from sending out a topical questionnaire throws some light upon the psychology of uncertainty. A curve representing the disposition toward chance seems to follow closely in direction and height a curve showing changes in the faith or in the fear one has in one's own personal safety. This gambling curve varies in direc- tion and intensity, just as would be expected, according to the age, physical condition, previous experience, and sex. It fluctuates much for the ages from ten to seventeen years in both sexes, as uncertain as is this period of adolescence. Later the prevail- ing tendency is stronger toward chance among men than among women. The gam- bling impulse seems to be a sort of balance between faith in self and distrust of self.

The psychological theories of the gambling impulse are few in number and inadequate in treatment. Avarice and love of wealth are not, as many have sug- gested, large elements in the case. A desire for a stimulus to call forth the natural activity of the mind; indolence, vacuity being an unnatural state of mind ; a desire to forget self and be rid of the commonplace these seem to be the real causes or explanation of the impulse. Professor Thomas has summed it up in his article on " The Gambling Instinct " thus : " Gambling is a means of keeping up the conflict interest and of securing all the pleasure-pain sensations of conflict activity with little effort and no drudgery ; and, incidentally or habitually, it may be a means of securing money." The race has been evolved in an environment of uncertainty, and such an environment has become indispensable to alertness of the faculties. Reflex action, muscular co-ordination, memory, imagination, and judgment times are thereby quick- ened. Does not the condition of uncertainty hold the mind in a tonic and unrelaxed condition ? The addition of the stake brings in a whole train of added states center- ing about the feeling of power. Hope and fear, joy and sorrow, emulation, aggres- sion, instinct of domination, love of humiliating one's opponent, pugnacity, jealousy, envy are some of the affective states exercised.

A study of luck reveals that it is regarded as more than mere chance. It is significant that the implements of gambling of the primitive man are the same as those used for divination ; the same methods are used now for gambling, now for divination. This use-connection suggests one characteristic of luck, that it is a sort of connection with the god, the will, the ruler of affairs. Luck names the attitude, favoring or frowning, of some hovering spirit, some " guardian angel," some " evil genius." Were luck a pure accidental content, it would scarcely have persisted in the life of the peoples, and been found in so many expressions of "lucky days," "unlucky numbers," the " lucky box," the " fortune wheel," etc. But another glance at the historical interpretation of luck, and there is revealed a sort of paradox ; it tells of the passion for certainty. Instead of indicating a love of the uncertain, it testifies of the longing of the mind for the certain, the sure. From this viewpoint it is easily seen as akin to the principle of all religions, and the scientific thirst for knowledge, the elimination of the element of the uncertainty. This last observation finds confirmation in the corresponding intensity of the gambling impulse and the religious sentiment in many races, and from a correspondence between this chance impulse and the scientific spirit in many peoples.

This study makes some contribution to ethics. " Conduct is the result of latent biological forces; much conduct being the forced expression of highly anabolic,