The University often sends me emails asking me to participate in research experiments. But because they need a certain number of people to show up they usually double book the sessions to ensure there are enough participants. For those who show up after the session is full they give them $5 for showing up and send them on their way. I have come to learn that it is much more lucrative to show up near the start time and get the $5 then to actually spend an hour on the experiment for the $15.
So today I was working up near north campus and my shift ended at 6:50 and there was an experiment that started at 7. I decided it would be perfect. I could stop on the way home and pick up a fiver and then use that to drink for free all night. That $5 would mean that I could have two $2 pitchers and Mitch's and even have enough for a dollar tip. Those are 60oz pitchers so I could have a great night out on the $5 from stopping on the way home.
When I got to the lab it turned out that they weren't full so I actually had to participate. The basis of the experiment was to study decision making where you sat at a computer and were put into random groups of 6 students. You then had to rank letters based on certain payouts depending on which particpants had the highest priority which changed often. It was a little too complicated to explain on here but the basic premise was that the better you were at ranking things with high payouts the more money you got for the experiment. I quickly realized that this was just game theory and with a little bit of strategy I was able to find the Nash Equilibrium. I was able to consistently get a high number of points. They said at the beginning that the average payout was about $15. I made $28. Too bad that because I am a university employee it will come in my next paycheck (with taxes removed). Unlike the $5 cash that I could have gotten.
So my scheme of taking the $5 by showing up late might not be as good as my scheme to dominate choice experiments.
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