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Game Shows and Neuroscience

By cortex on November 10, 2006.

Ogi Ogas is a Ph.D candidate in neuroscience at Boston University. He was also a contestant on Who Wants to Be A Millionare, where he used his knowledge of neuroscience to win a cool $500,000. Learn about how he did it.

If you're a true game show fanatic, then you might be interested in learning about the optimal strategies in Deal or No Deal. Economists have analyzed the decisions of contestants and found that their choices are rarely "rational". Instead of performing a few simple calculations, and figuring out if the deal is fair, contestants rely on their emotional instincts and impulsive feelings:

We examine the choices of 84 contestants from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Contrary to expected utility theory, the choices can be explained in large part by the previous outcomes experienced by the contestants during the game. Risk aversion decreases strongly after earlier expectations have been shattered by unfavorable outcomes, consistent with the break-even effect. Our results point in the direction of frame-dependent choice theories such as prospect theory, and suggest that phenomena such as framing and path-dependence are relevant, even when large real monetary amounts are at stake.

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neuroscience

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