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A defining feature of smoking addiction is that smokers pursue their habit even when it’s clear they are forgoing other benefits, such as good health. Now brain scans suggest that this dodgy decision-making may extend into other areas of their lives.

Pearl Chiu and her colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, studied 31 chronic smokers and 31 non-smokers as they played a game inside an fMRI scanner. The players had to invest money in a simulated stock market over several rounds. After each round, they were given feedback on the returns from their investment …