Decision making and risk aversion in the Cash Cab

Double or nothing?! Small groups making decisions under risk in “Quiz Taxi”

“…The group decision appears to be based rather on the overall money at stake than on the individual stakes of each contestant involved. However, Bliss et al (2011) do not report anything about the subjective decision making process of the contestants. 6 5 They nd evidence for systematic expectation biases and systematic calculation errors.…”

“…7 Overall, the set-up of the German Quiz Taxi is very similar to that of the US Cash Cab as described by Bliss et al (2011). Notable dierences are the group sizes (1 to 5 in the US compared to 2 or 3 in the German version) and the group discussions (apparently rather limited in the US, more extensive in Germany), which explains the dierent focus of the study presented here and that by Bliss et al (2011). 8 Data from TV shows has of course some limitations (see List 2006).…”

“…In addition, there is no studio audience but only the host of the show, and the show is neither aired on one of the ve biggest German TV stations nor at prime time. Bliss et al (2011) also note that contestants cannot prepare for this particular quiz in advance. Figure 1 provides a screen shot of two Quiz Taxi contestants.…”

“…The Quiz Taxi data allows studying the communication in the group, making it possible to analyze what drives group behavior. In this respect, the study presented here goes signicantly beyond the work of Bliss et al (2011) that focuses exclusively on the estimation of coecients of absolute risk aversion for dierent types of groups. They report that teams perform better and are more likely to go for the risky option.…”

“…From a producer's point of view, this would also be highly cost inecient. 13 This constitutes a major dierence compared to the US version where group sizes of 1 to 5 persons enable Bliss et al (2011) to investigate dierences in risk attitudes between individuals and small groups.…”