TEMPE, Ariz. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- The odds are five-to-one you've been involved in an office pool; but are those bets really enhancing your enjoyment of the actual event? The answer may surprise you.
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Spend a few minutes on the Internet, and you'll see you can bet on almost anything these days -- from sporting events to who will win American Idol or Survivor.
Fantasy Football fan Paul Fombelle says betting against coworkers just makes it more fun.
"I love office pools," Fombelle told Ivanhoe. "Office pools really bring people together to talk and hang out about something they probably wouldn't talk about if they didn't have that pool to bring them together."
A recent study examined the question, "Are betting sites and office pools really increasing your enjoyment of the game?" Over the course of five years, Fombelle and more than 300 others were asked to watch excerpts from reality and game shows. Some bet on the outcome and some didn't. Then, win or lose, they were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the experience.
"The people who made a prediction always enjoyed watching the shows less than the people who didn't make a prediction," study author Naomi Mandel, Ph.D., a researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Mandel says from a purely scientific standpoint, the act of predicting causes stress and even unhappiness.
"Uncertainty is one thing that's driving it," Dr. Mandel said. "The other thing is anticipated regret, [or] thinking about all the things that could go wrong and all the negative feelings that will result from that."
Fombelle couldn't believe it.
"I was shocked," Fombelle said. "I thought the office pool would make it a more exciting and fun experience for everyone involved."
Fombelle isn't giving up office pools. Neither is the researcher herself, but she will take her own professional advice -- if you feel yourself stressing over those office pool bets, give it up.
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The odds are five-to-one you've been involved in an office pool; but are those bets really enhancing your enjoyment of the actual event? The answer may surprise you.
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