Love thy neighbour: proxemic bias in the voting strategy of contestants in the TV quiz-show "The Weakest Link"

Goddard, Paul, Ashley, Rebecca, Fuller, Gareth and Hudson, Ian (2011) Love thy neighbour: proxemic bias in the voting strategy of contestants in the TV quiz-show "The Weakest Link". Proceedings of the 2011 Conference of the International Confederation for the Advancement of Behavioural Economics and Economic Psychology .

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Love thy neighbour: proxemic bias in the voting strategy of contestants in the TV quiz-show "The Weakest Link"
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Abstract

We observed the pattern of voting in the first round of 72 episodes of the UK version of the TV quiz-show „The Weakest Link‟ (WL). The first round culminated as each of the nine contestants carried out an eight-alternative-forced-choice task by voting for one of their peers as the WL. Rudimentary probability theory was used to generate the frequencies of votes that would be expected purely due to chance for all eight relative positions of voter-to-candidate spatial relationships. The observed frequencies from the episodes were then compared to the expected pattern. Consensus, the number of contestants voting for the eventual WL, was also recorded in each of the 72 first rounds. Two main findings emerged:- i.) contestants avoided voting their direct neighbour as the WL, although the propensity to vote for a peer was not a simple function of distance per se; ii.) the „neighbour-avoidance‟ effect increased as the group consensus as to the identity of the WL decreased.

Additional Information:We observed the pattern of voting in the first round of 72 episodes of the UK version of the TV quiz-show „The Weakest Link‟ (WL). The first round culminated as each of the nine contestants carried out an eight-alternative-forced-choice task by voting for one of their peers as the WL. Rudimentary probability theory was used to generate the frequencies of votes that would be expected purely due to chance for all eight relative positions of voter-to-candidate spatial relationships. The observed frequencies from the episodes were then compared to the expected pattern. Consensus, the number of contestants voting for the eventual WL, was also recorded in each of the 72 first rounds. Two main findings emerged:- i.) contestants avoided voting their direct neighbour as the WL, although the propensity to vote for a peer was not a simple function of distance per se; ii.) the „neighbour-avoidance‟ effect increased as the group consensus as to the identity of the WL decreased.
Keywords:proxemic bias, strategy, contestants, bmjtype
Subjects:C Biological Sciences > C800 Psychology
L Social studies > L100 Economics
C Biological Sciences > C880 Social Psychology
Divisions:College of Social Science > School of Psychology
ID Code:4581
Deposited On:03 Aug 2011 09:33

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