Going it alone

Continuation of my review of The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why.

I'm not sure what this has to do with poker or Crazy Asian Gamblers, but I still think it's interesting.

This was an experiment that compared Japanese to Americans. The experiment had two conditions -- an alone condition and a group condition.

Participants in the alone condition were told that they would draw four lottery tickets, each having a one digit number on it. In the group condition, all participants beleived that they were part of a four-person group (whose members they never actually saw) and that each person would draw a lottery ticket. To participants in both conditions it was explained that the sum of the numbers on the lottery tickets would determine who would have to take the bitter drink. (They) asked participants how likely they would be among the unlucky ones.

The Japanese thought they were more likely to escape the unpleasant experience in the group condition. American men thought they were more likely to escape in the alone condition. Aamerican women behaved like Japanese.

Like I said, I'm not sure what this means in relationship to gambling. Maybe nothing.