Why do people fish for recreation? Social science literature suggests that both catch (e.g., number or sizes of fish) and non‐catch dimensions (e.g., nature experience, temporary escape) play a role. After reviewing the literature from environmental psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, recreational fisher motivation research as well as popular fishing books, I find that the opposite of catching fish, more specifically the uncertainty of the catch, maybe another, perhaps fundamental force that explains the attraction of the activity to millions of people. There appears to be strong utility in the gaming nature of the activity. This quality may contribute to explain various patterns that are well known, e.g., the overinvestment of time and money by recreational fishers that drastically exceed the market value of fish, the lack of self‐regulation of a local recreational fishery in terms of effort being spent also on low stock sizes, the disutility associated with providing certain catch probability information, diminishing marginal utility return for increasing catch rates, management regulations that make fishing harder than necessary, suboptimal satisfaction despite rising catch rates, and finally the dominance of men among populations of recreational fishers. I present a serious of testable propositions and call for a novel research focus that seeks to better understand what makes catch ambiguity attractive psychologically and emotionally.

中文翻译：

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渔获量的不确定性和休闲钓鱼的吸引力：建议和未来的研究方向


人们为什么以钓鱼为消遣？社会科学文献表明，捕获量（例如鱼的数量或大小）和非捕获量（例如自然体验、暂时逃生）都发挥着作用。在回顾了环境心理学、神经科学、人类学、休闲钓鱼者动机研究以及流行钓鱼书籍的文献后，我发现与捕鱼相反，更具体地说，捕获量的不确定性，也许是解释吸引力的另一种、也许是根本的力量。向数百万人介绍这项活动。该活动的游戏性质似乎具有很强的实用性。这种品质可能有助于解释各种众所周知的模式，例如，休闲渔民过度投入时间和金钱，大大超过鱼的市场价值，当地休闲渔业在投入的努力方面缺乏自我监管此外，种群规模较小、与提供某些捕捞概率信息相关的负效用、增加捕捞率的边际效用回报递减、使捕捞变得比必要的难度更大的管理规定、尽管捕捞率不断上升但满意度仍不理想，以及最后，男性在人口中占主导地位。休闲钓鱼者。我提出了一系列可测试的命题，并呼吁建立一个新颖的研究重点，旨在更好地理解是什么让捕获歧义在心理和情感上具有吸引力。