Change in Urge, Not Readiness to Change or Beliefs Concerning Odds, Predicts Gambling Following Brief Interventions.

We provided brief interventions to gamblers (i.e., brief motivational, cognitive, or control interventions) and examined their effects on mechanisms of change and behavior. Though change in readiness and beliefs about odds were hypothesized to be predictors, only change in urge predicted odds of purchasing when exposed to scratch-off tickets.