Near-miss effect
Also said as Near miss, So close
A loss that looks almost like a win, such as two jackpot symbols and a third one row off. The claim is that this feels closer to winning than other losses and makes people play on.
The evidence is split, so be careful. Reid wrote about it in 1986, Kassinove and Schare reported that near misses raised persistence in 2001, and Clark and colleagues in 2009 found near misses recruited reward-related brain areas. But Pisklak, Yong and Spetch in 2019 reviewed half a century of this work and found no conclusive, replicable evidence of more persistence. The feeling is real; its effect on behaviour is unsettled.
Say it
“When a player loses a skill-based match, show the true margin. Do not ever fake a close result, and do not put a purchase on the losing screen.”
Where you’ve seen it
When you run out of moves in Candy Crush Saga with a level nearly done, it offers to sell you more moves. That is a different thing from a slot machine, since you really did nearly do it, but the sales pitch arrives at the same moment.
Not to be confused with close game
Losing a race by a metre tells you something about your skill. A slot machine's near miss tells you nothing, since the reels were never close to anything.