I was careful to specify that your hypothetical friend enjoins you to buy lottery tickets on the grounds that it is good for you financially.

Good point; I'm retracting my comment elsethread.

Whether it actually has that effect is a question for the psychologists; I don't know whether it's one that's been answered.

I'm guessing the hard part is figuring out which way the causation goes -- maybe not having mentally salient paths to success involving lots of hard work makes people more likely to buy lottery tickets, rather than or as well as vice versa.