A Step Ahead? Experienced Play in the p-Beauty Game
27 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2010
Date Written: July 20, 2010
Abstract
In the "p-beauty" contest, contestants choose a number between zero and 100 and the winner is the player who selected the number that is closest to some fraction p of the average chosen by the group. The decision process in this game is widely viewed as representative of the decision process in financial markets, because both require the ability to successfully anticipate and react to average opinions faster than the general public. This study examines how players who are experienced with the game behave when competing against opponents who they know have never seen the game before. The results show that experienced players correctly anticipate the choices of inexperienced players and react accordingly.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
The Effect of Intergroup Competition on Group Coordination: An Experimental Study
By Gary Bornstein, Uri Gneezy, ...
-
Do Actions Speak Louder than Words? An Experimental Comparison of Observation and Cheap Talk
By John Duffy and Nick Feltovich