Research project
How do first-hand experiences and Problem Gambling Severity Index scores relate? Using natural language processing to enhance our understanding of text-based narratives
- Start date: 1 June 2025
- End date: 31 May 2026
- Principal investigator: Dr Simon van Baal
- Co-investigators: Dr Philip Newall, University of Bristol; Dr Lukasz Walasek, University of Warwick
Description
Gambling research has become an interdisciplinary field. However, findings can be hard to translate across disciplinary and methodological boundaries, hampering progress on the development of prevention and intervention tools.
Research overview
The current project will become an exemplar for interdisciplinary investigation, creating a common language, by using natural language processing to quantitatively analyse people's stories about their own gambling.
We will then map these stories onto people's Problem Gambling Severity Index scores, the most commonly used, interdisciplinary gambling-harm measurement tool. This approach will provide both a deeper understanding of the lived experiences underlying Problem Gambling Severity Index scores in a discipline-neutral format.
The mutual intelligibility of research between fields is crucial for a complete understanding of gambling harm, and predicting gambling harms using text could increase the scope of current harm detection methods, helping tailor interventions.
This project is funded by the Association for the Study of Gambling.
Related content
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The hidden harms of gambling – and how to prevent them – Research and Innovation Blog