In my
last post, I discussed some game theory behind the Cliffhangers game on
The Price is Right. And while watching the stupidity of Cliffhangers players got me angry, what really got me thinking was the bidding itself.
To get up on stage (which comes with a chance to win bigger prizes), four contestants take turns guessing the value of an item (usually several hundred dollars). The one with the closest guess to the item's actual value, without going over, wins the item and gets to go up on stage.
Frequently, people make really dumb guesses. Someone will bid, say, $420 for an item, and another contestant will subsequently bid $415, giving themselves a $5 window in which to win the item. But more interesting is whether or not contestants decide to bid $1 above someone else. Frequently, someone will bid, say, $475 after another contestant has bid $420. They could have bid $421 (and indeed this does happen, as in the video below), but in the unwritten etiquette of
The Price is Right, it's viewed as a low blow.