If anyone else out there has a preoccupation with reality TV and game shows ranging from Temptation to Temptation Island and justifies it on the basis of the insights it can offer into social psychology and behavioural economics (anyone?)… you’ll appreciate this article in the Wall Street Journal titled Why Game Shows Have Economists Glued to Their TVs.
Especially cool are the links to academic game show research available on the web.
Perhaps this could be a career move for Larry Emdur after the canning of the Australian Price is Right last October.
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2 comments:
What a great article! It's no surprise that contestants on the Price is Right frequently deviate from the "unique subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium" (the best way to play). I'm not sure if it's the pressure of playing in a studio in front of an audience and cameras (and Larry pressing you for an answer), or if the contestants are just not terribly bright, but it seems that half of them can't even read out the numbers correctly in the higher or lower segment at the very end. And what about the "whoever gets closest to the price without going over" segment? You'll get three contestants give varying estimates for an item, between, say $150 and $300, and the final person will say, "$450!" whereas all they had to do was say $301 which would cover all possible prices over $300. Duh!
I think it's Larry's dazzling smile. It seems to make some contestants weak at the knees. I think we could test this by comparing the performance of contestants who start the game by rushing over and giving him a big kiss with those who don't.
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