In other words, what you're suggesting is that for some, lotteries and voting are like candy, pornography, birth control, or narcotics, i.e., a legitimate way (in some cultures) for a person to deliberately subvert his own genetic programming and obtain pleasure that he doesn't "deserve".
Ok, I can buy that, but I still think there must be a large fraction of lottery players and voters who don't know, even intellectually, that their chances of winning or changing the election outcome are tiny. But it doesn't look like enough data exist to settle the matter either way. On Wed, Sep 01, 2004 at 10:07:00PM -0400, Robert A. Book wrote: > Whenever I ask seemingly intelligent lottery players why they play, > the answer is usually something along the lines of "I know they > chances of winning are tiny, but for a dollar I get to dream of > winning for a whole week." In other words, they (may) know the > probability is extremely small, but that extremely small probability > has a utility value beyond value the chance of dollars that goes with > it. This is analogous to the entertainment value of playing Las Vegas > style gambling games like cards, roulette, and slot machines. > > Something similar may apply to voting -- everyone knows the chances of > an election being decided by a single vote are miniscule, but they get > some satisfaction from participating in the process, and maybe even > from knowing that they made the total for their candidate in their > county printed in the newspaper the next day from "138,298" to > "138,299." > > --Robert Book
