Background and aims This systematic review examines whether sports betting behaviors differ among and between sports bettors in different countries, evaluates psychosocial problems related to sports betting behaviors and how problems may vary by country, and lastly, summarizes the current regulatory guidelines for sports betting. Methods We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and included peer-reviewed articles from PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. Studies on sports betting behavior were included if they were published in English or Chinese between January 1, 2010 and March 28th, 2022. We gathered regulatory information from peer-reviewed articles, legal acts, and relevant websites. Of 2,450 articles screened, 65 were included in the final review. Results Marketing and promotion of sports betting were more prominent for sports betting in Australia and the United Kingdom. Interviews with sports bettors demonstrated that sports betting is persuasive and normalized. Psychosocial problems do not appear to differ greatly by country, and sports betting appears to be associated with elevated levels of problem gambling. Responsible gambling approaches have helped address risky sports betting behaviors. China and South Korea have imposed more strict regulations and restrictions on sports betting access in comparison to countries such as Australia or the United States. Discussion and conclusions Currently, sports betting is easy to access, normalized, and contains many attractive features for sports bettors. Psychoeducation about potential risks of sports betting and encouragement of responsible gambling strategies could help lessen risky sports-betting behaviors, though cross-cultural adaptations should be explored.

Working memory has been considered an active buffer for processing perceptual representations in a progressive manner, integrating information involuntarily to form structured mental representations. The automatic integration of objects' physical features in working memory has been well documented, although its social aspect remains unknown. The current study examines whether working memory would automatically process social information, that is, extract social information from memory content to form a higher-level social representation. Through four experiments, we demonstrate that participants could spontaneously infer personality traits when required to hold the social information implying others' traits in working memory, without the explicit goal of trait inference or awareness of the inference processes. Results show that participants mistook the memorized words for inferred trait words; such "errors" were then accumulated and amplified when the information was transmitted from person to person, during which the social information was briefly stored in working memory and reproduced after a short time. These findings indicate that working memory may automatically integrate social information into hierarchically structured mental representations.

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