How Does the Power of Opportunity Influence One's Decision Making?

Not all people do bad things because they are bad. Just like there are some bad people whom perform good deeds. Instead, it may be the power of opportunity that changes the normal thinking pattern that a person has. Chance and opportunity often makes a person reevaluate some decision and the opportunity or chance is usually a way to steer from making the obvious decision. The very definition of the word opportunity means "a good chance for advancement", according to the meriam webster dictionary. Therefore, this means that there is some form of chance or gamble taken, amongst decision making. The chance of success versus failure may be very favorable and even likely, however, there is still the factor of taking a chance that exists. Now of course when we are talking about opportunities most would think in a positive manner. Many people taking advantage of opportunities are usually making a decision to better and/or enhance their current situation. The opportunity to further ones education through college, or the opportunity to play professional sports, or to make it in the entertainment world are all opportunities that might be considered good opportunities by many. However, what about those opportunities that causes one to make the wrong decision. Here is where the matter of chance comes more into play.

Let's look at this thing called opportunity from another perspective. There is a hot new show on trutv that airs every Tuesday at 9pm et. Maybe you've seen one of the many commercials they've aired. The law enforcement show Bait Car is a reality series, or as trutv likes to put it-"not reality but actuality", that is geared toward catching car thieves. The scenery is set up with some vehicle that is posted on some random roadway or street and desinged to lure potential thieves. The doors are always unlocked and the keys are conveniently awaiting its driver. The car also is set up with surveillance and special controls in which law enforcement uses from a remote location. They have the ability to keep the doors locked, once a suspect is inside, to prevent escape. They can also shut the engine down on command making the vehicle completely inoperable to the thief. The show has been quite a hit since its premiere as you'll notice they have plenty of thieves to fall prey to their tactical operations. Or is it something else. For many years law enforcement have been using many of these tactical schemes to catch all kinds of criminals. From raids to stings and steak-outs, an opportunity that a criminal just couldn't refuse was always given, with the result being a success for the cops. Some may say this is entrapment. Setting up a lure or trap to catch people whom would have not even performed the criminal act had the "bait" not been in place. To law enforcement, perhaps the keyword is "potential-thieves", but what about the average person that is not your typical "criminal"? Since more irrational thoughts occur more than rational ones during a gamble, chances are that most encounters would result in a theft. Even for the average "good" person. Watching the show, you can even hear the dialog of the criminals whom are often talking to themselves and trying to rationalize their actions and think clearly. Clearly they cannot, however. You may hear words like "Yo! The keys are in here and everything...." and while they are driving away they make statements like "Man! This is a set-up! I think that this is a set-up yo!" The thing about this is, they are right. Yet their actions clearly show that they cannot properly rationalize. This also further confirms the power of opportunity. More than catching criminals, these experiments also prove that anyone is capable of anything given an opportunity. It is seldom that you find persons that clearly think things through to make a rational and perhaps the right decision. This was also illustrated on the show with a lady whom found a bait car and proceeded to get in and start driving. Her trip was very short, as the women simply straightened the car out to make it fit into a parking spot. Nearby spectators watched in awe as they knew the car was very suspicious. The lady even went as far as locking all of the doors and securing the vehicle after being let out by someone nearby. The cops saw this one as a good samaritan act.

In the casino world, there is a famous saying that goes-"the house always win" This is perhaps the most brutally honest way to let the betting-man know that inevitably, he will loose all of his money when it is all said and done. The opportunity here is to potentially increase one's earnings through games of chance. A report by Robert Ladouceur and Anne Gaboury discusses a study(performed by Michel Domont and Serge Lederc) that was conducted with 15 gamblers playing a series of rounds of roulette.Their study concluded that gamblers tend to make more irrational decisions than rational ones.

This irrational decision making has perhaps been the cause of husbands spending the rent money to bet on that horse "Lucky Lucy"or the reason why mom and grandma are spending workday hours in the cigarette vented enclosure that is the Bingo Hall. The chance and opportunity of increasing one's personal wealth causes one to make more bad decisions than not, which equates to more loss of money than gain. However, knowing this still does not deter the better. This proves that more than playing for fun, games of chance can become a serious addiction and disorder. The various hot lines and gambling help centers are evidence of such a disorder, as it is defined as the inability to resist impulsion of gambling, therefore leading to critical social and personal situations, according to MedlinePlus.com. It shows that gambling can be a serious problem and is not a simple task at alleviating.

As with casino gambling, other forms of gambling-or simply taking a chance for the possibility of advancement, are just as crucial to a person's well being. Think about a person taking a chance at an approaching stop light. As it is about to go from yellow to red the driver has to make a quick decision. There goes room for a bet. If irrational thought occurs more than not at this point, then the driver is most likely going to "put the pedal to the medal" and try to beat the light. The risk involves not crossing the intersection in time and running the light, breaking the law and the possibility of injury. But what are the reasons for these types of impulse control issues? Is it the same as casino gambling? Perhaps it is the mere fact that there was just an opportunity that presented itself.

Here's a prime example of what I mean. Working in a retail clothing store many years ago, I encountered one particular customer that done something that will always stand out in my mind. It is the very reason as to this mystery of opportunity and impulse control. In this scenario, a women enters the store with her 5 children. After some time of browsing through clothes for the little ones, she approaches me and asks if there were a bathroom available for two of her children whom seemed very eager and anxious to relieve themselves. Without hesitation, I allowed the women to use the bathroom located in the stockroom, as there was no formal restroom for customers. I then proceeded back out onto the sales floor to resume my duties. Ironically enough, I was relieving the security guard at the time and was therefore looking out for potential shoplifters. After some time had passed. I suddenly remembered that I had left the customer in the back unattended. Assuming that she simply made all of the other kids use the bathroom as well, I casually retreated to the stockroom. I mean, this lady clearly looked very respectable and presented herself in such a manner. However, as I opened the stock room door, I noticed the women was hunched over an over sized bag she must of been secretly carrying. She was attempting to stuff an enormous amount of clothes into this bag during the time she noticed me entering the room. In a stunned reaction, the lady simply dropped the entire pile of clothes and proceeded to browse through them, murmuring words like "Oooooh! This looks nice..this should fit." The lady simply acted as if she did not just attempt to steal those clothes, and furthermore acted as if I did not witness her attempt. After the brief showcase, the women quickly gathered her children, collected the pile of clothes and proceeded to exit the stock room. Since the law was that it is not officially stealing until the person attempts to leave the store with goods, I simply watched the women as she exited the stock room with the clothes. To much amazement, the women proceeded directly to the register and purchased each and every item that she was just attempting to steal only minutes earlier. The total of her purchase was over $300 and the women made her payment without hesitation.

This led me to wonder for a long time what her motivation was. I mean, clearly she had plenty of money to flip the bill, yet it seemed that because the opportunity presented itself, the lady simply couldn't resist taking that chance. Is this the very proof that irrational decision making occurs more when there is an opportunity to "get over" on someone? This example may shed some light on this continued study. It did at least clearly show me that even the most respectful and clear minded person can suddenly become tainted with thought when there is opportunity or good chance of them doing something wrong and getting away with it. The powerful tool of opportunity. It almost seems like a "catch-22".

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opportunity Definition of Opportunity
MedlinePlus Pathological Gambling nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Robert Ladouceur and Anne Gaboury Effects of Limited and Unlited Gambling Behavior springerlink.com