THE TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? has spilled the beans on people’s risk-taking behaviour. Or rather, their lack of it. It turns out we are not natural gamblers – if we were, the show’s producers would be shelling out far more money than they do.
Gauthier Lanot of Queen’s University in Belfast and his team analysed the behaviour of 515 participants in the UK. Players face a sequence of multiple-choice questions and keep going until they answer wrongly. A player’s potential winnings double at each stage, but they also face greater and greater losses – and hence a temptation to quit while ahead.…
