A Time To Gamble: A Review Assessing Associations Between Time Perspective And Gambling

The renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo conceptualized Time Perspective (TP) as the psychosocial, cognitive, and emotional process by which individuals focus positively or negatively on the past, present, and future through personality-driven traits. Over the years, many research studies have found relationships between TP and numerous psychiatric conditions listed under the category of “Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders” of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Interestingly, gambling disorder (GD) appears listed as the sole condition in a new category of the DSM-5 on behavioral addictions, reflecting research indicating that GD resembles substance-related disorders in clinical manifestation, onset, comorbidity, neurobiological reactions, and therapeutic implications. Given the uniqueness and novelty that GD represents in the field of addictions, and the inclusion of gambling as a topic of interest in TP studies, this narrative review focuses on the contributions that Zimbardo’s conceptualization of TP has had on understanding GD as a behavioral addiction problem that bears temporal and personality implications. Overall, a wide range of research studies reported individual TPs to be correlated with diverse aspects of gambling activity, albeit only across countries in North America and Europe. Thus, future studies should be conducted cross-culturally across countries and continents not addressed yet.