The Gamboling Instinct

Deal or No Deal, a thoroughly mindless hit TV show, is worth watching at least once for its sociological value. Its premise is astonishingly simple. A contestant selects a case from among twenty, each containing a sum of money from one cent to a million dollars. The contestant then opens the remaining cases one by one, thus putting the sums contained within out of play. Select the case with the million in it, and you can no longer win that amount, etc. Along the way an offstage "banker" offers to "buy" the contestant's case from him. The amount offered rises as the chance of the contestant's case containing a large number goes up, and vice versa. It's amazing how often an individual for whom a hundred thousand dollars would be life-changing, will hold out in the blind conviction his case holds the million. More often than not the person with one dollar, ten dollars, a hundred, and a million left in play will turn down a reasonably good offer from the banker. Greed trumps good judgment almost every time, even with three to one odds against them.