The Weakest Link - A Field Experiment in Rational Decision Making

Marco Haan, Bart Los, Yohanes Riyanto and Martin van Geest
Additional contact information
Martin van Geest: University of Groningen

Experimental from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: We analyze the BBC TV game show "The Weakest Link", using data from 77 episodes, covering 13,380 questions. We focus on the banking decision, where a contestant chooses to secure an amount of money for the eventual winner, or to risk it on a general knowledge question. In the latter case, should he answer correctly, the amount at stake increases exponentially. We show that banking decisions are not rational: a crude rule of thumb performs substantially better than the contestants’ strategies. Yet, at least to some extent, contestants do take into account their own ability and the fact that questions are progressively more difficult.

Keywords: Experimental Economics; TV Game Shows; Bounded Rationality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-03-04
Note: Type of Document - pdf; prepared on PC - Scientific Workplace;
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econwpa.ub.uni-muenchen.de/econ-wp/exp/papers/0203/0203001.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: The weakest link: a field experiment in rational decision making (2002)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpex:0203001

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Experimental from University Library of Munich, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by EconWPA ().