The Mutuality Of A Game Show And General Psychology

APA Research Final

Katelyn Renteria Bazaldua
Catawba Valley Community College
PSY 150 and General Psychology
Professor Schwarts
21 March 2023

The Mutuality of a Game Show and Psychology

Deal or No Deal is a game show that toys with high stakes and involves a contestant who is offered large sums of money. Throughout the show “contestants face high-stakes lotteries, in a setting attained by strategic considerations or selection issues relating to skill” (De Roos and Sarafidis 2010). Heuristical schemes, conditioning, and elements of persuasion are all factors that influence the final decision of the contestant. While it is only a game show, the stakes for the contestant are high. In the company of family or friends as well as the audience,

In particular, the heuristic of anchoring and adjustment is associated with the statement, “The number eleven, it’s always been a curse” (Deal or No Deal). Closely observing the commentary of the family members, they create the impression that a single tragic course of events reflects some kind of connection to the number eleven. This can be labeled as a form of anchoring and adjustment since the contestant is eventually persuaded to base his judgment off of a sliver of information.
An example of the recognition heuristic is demonstrated by a family member that mentions, “You’ve always said I'd tell you honestly” (Deal or No Deal). This shows the family member trying to lean the contestant towards an alternate decision that is recognizable and trustworthy to him. Which lies in accordance with the recognition heuristic that enhances a drive towards familiarity in a person.
In conclusion, from the very beginning of the show, the contestant is challenged to decide between two options. With the pressure of the crowd and his family members, in result, he finalizes his decision to increase his reward under the influence of the recognition and anchoring and adjustment

Without thinking about it, the contestant must carefully analyze his options before deciding anything and he experiences these in the process. Additionally, the use of ethos, pathos, and logos on top of the pressure of the roaring crowd, the contestant is influenced to teeter between decisions. This, tying into conditioning, where the contestant looked to the claims of his family members who tied different life events as a form of influence to the decision. There were attempts to build trust between themselves and the contestant and in the end he swayed towards the correlations of the family members, but did not win the money he had