I know that blog posts on the behavioral economic aspects of Deal or No Deal are a bit trite at this point (here's an old Prawfs post and an old Freakonomics post), but the Chronicle of Higher Education today reports that the economic literature is also becoming littered with articles that use the contestants' decisionmaking as data for studying decisionmaking under uncertainty.  More particularly, some scholars are claiming that prospect theory predicting that wagerers will be more risk-seeking to avoid losses holds true for the contestants.  When the large dollar amounts are found early, defendants are apt to make riskier choices in an attempt to regain good odds.

I actually hate this game show.  There are too many commercials -- what is essentially a 20-minute show is stretched to an hour-long show, and an hour is a lot of time to waste on television that isn't Law and Order.  There is no skill whatsoever involved.  The contestants often say "No Deal" to in what my mind is an awful lot of money.  Their three-person pom pom squads use the worst arguments to get them to say "No Deal" also.  The fact that the contestant has six kids to send to college seems to me a good argument to take a six-figure amount, not to keep going.  That being said, I think studying this behavior is interesting.  Do contestants engage in pre-commitment strategies?  Do think encourage their support groups beforehand to urge them to keep going, reasoning that they began with nothing, so they have nothing to lose?  What affect to audience behavior have on the contestants?  Does financial net worth affect contestants' decisionmaking?  Does education?  I'm sure that with the writers' strike, we'll have much more data!

And of course, does this type of research require consent under IRB rules?

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