Irrationality test! the door game

[Archvile]

Short & cool little game. Is basically done in less than two minutes. Quite insightful... Can't tell you more though, really don't wanna spoil it! Read the instructions first!

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?page_id=117

My score: 2360 & 2362

Your turn!
.

[MacGuffin]

Ah I see.

Didn't realize I could stay with the same door the first game.

[fripping]

this was on metafilter. . . i read the comments before doing it so i can't say if i'd come up with the ideal solution on my own or not. of course they were jumping all over each other to sound smart and supply the answer.

[Acala1]

First Part: 1941
Second Part(Shinking doors): 2446

[Delilah]

2032/2046

Why?

*edit= I'm a loser.

Heh, yeah.

[fripping]

2032/2046

blah blah blah
wow way to spoil it in one fell swoop.

[Delilah]

wow way to spoil it in one fell swoop.

:blush: I fail at life.

[nullPointerException]

2428 / 2446 and wtf was the point of that?

[foodeater]

2428 / 2446 and wtf was the point of that?

same except 2224 on the shrinking doors
Edit: Oh, I see.

[Karl]

First score 2113, switched 7 times. Second score 2209, switched 3 times. It looked like it didn't matter which I clicked so I clicked the same one. Now let's see more info...

Oh screw you, door game.

[cripple]

2158/2446
You switched 5 times more when the doors were shrinking.
More frequent switching when the doors are shrinking is most likely a reflection of an irrational tendency to keep your options open.
This tendency cost you points in the game, but it could have much larger implications in life...
This is wrong, I switched doors because I didnt understand I had to click twice to get a score, as I wondered why I couldn't get a score on the first clicks

[Roger Mexico]

I switched 9 times less when the doors were shrinking.

Um, "irrational tendency to keep your options open" is a suspect phrase. If the point values for each click are randomized, then having more options would be an advantage, no?

Or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

2260/2208

3 switches on both.

[Madrigal]

As usual I didn't get the instructions at first. Just opening the doors finding nothing inside. /retard

Anyway I didn't even switch once when they shrank.

[C.J.Woolf]

Another reason to stick with one door: It takes a click just to open another one, and that doesn't score any points. But just as they predicted, early in the first game I clicked on the shrinking doors to keep my options open. Very P-ish of me.

[Stoned_Rider]

I switched 9 times less when the doors were shrinking.

Um, "irrational tendency to keep your options open" is a suspect phrase. If the point values for each click are randomized, then having more options would be an advantage, no?

Or am I missing something?
It says that there is a different point distribution for each door. The idea is to find the door that tends to give the most points, in as few clicks as possible. Once you have determined which door that is, then it would be indeed irrational to waste your clicks on the other doors (also, you lose one of your 50 clicks by clicking a closed door to open it, giving you zero points for that click. So the more "zero clicks" you make, the lower your total score will be).

[kuraiken]

You switched 11 times more when the doors were shrinking.
More frequent switching when the doors are shrinking is most likely a reflection of an irrational tendency to keep your options open.
This tendency cost you points in the game, but it could have much larger implications in life.

so having more option is a bad thing?

[Rozza]

Scored 2262 & 2497. I switched 6 times in the 1st one and 0 times in the second one with the shrinking doors (I appeared to be on a high scroing door and stuck to it rather than risk upsetting the high-score trend). Not sure what that says about me or my decision-making other than it tends to be relatively low risk.

Good fun trying to rationalise next move :happpy: but poor understanding of the resultant scores left me somewhat confused about the underlying purpose and what the scores meant. :mellow:

[demagogic_schizoid]

That game wasn't as clever as it thought it was. I don't share their definition of "irrational".

[Jennywocky]

My scores were not as good as some (#1: 1600 vs #2: 2100 or so), but my pattern went against grain in round #2.


You switched 11 times less when the doors were shrinking. More frequent switching when the doors are shrinking is most likely a reflection of an irrational tendency to keep your options open.

The first round, I was trying to see if there was a pattern. (I did not find one, if there was.) But I noted by the end that it took me two clicks to open a new door and get a number, so one of those clicks meant I got 0 points.

In the second round, I spent the first 10-15 rounds trying to keep doors alive... then decided that, since I did not have a pattern for the points appearing, chances were I would get far more many points clicking on the same door and letting the other ones disappear, since every click would mean points.

Which is funny, because I am so P... and IRL I know I have a tendency to try to keep options open even if they might not be good ones.

Wake-up call: Let some options disappear, if they might not really pan out long-term, after you have chosen one to focus on. Don't waste resources on the dead.

[Autumn]

I don't get it...
First: switches = 4, pts = 2128
Second: switches = 0, pts = 2446

In the first round I was experimenting a little: trying to figure it out if the generousness(?) of the doors is varying over time or not. But found that it's most likely invariant.
So I returned to the door I started with and didn't waste any further clicks on other doors.

In the second round I discovered that most probably the firstly clicked door is the best one again, since that was the case in the previous round, and the average value of clicks was around the same as last time (however the doors could have been of different characteristics, but seeing your scores they were not).

And then I'm left with a text saying
"More frequent switching when the doors are shrinking is most likely a reflection of an irrational tendency to keep your options open.
This tendency cost you points in the game, but it could have much larger implications in life..." which it didn't since "You switched 4 times less when the doors were shrinking.".

Nothing is said on the functioning of the doors (i.e. I suspect that always the fist door is the best one).

I'm also puzzled about Rozza's 2497 pts...

[ApeTheDog]

The only thing I learnt from that is that I have a tendency to keep a door open if it is shrinking. It seems like common sense, since you don't know which one is going to pay off the largest amount.

I'm going to keep doing that in the future, so I really didn't learn anything, except, I guess, not to play this game again.

[stopharian]

2117/2397

[Archvile]

The only thing I learnt from that is that I have a tendency to keep a door open if it is shrinking. It seems like common sense, since you don't know which one is going to pay off the largest amount.


Once, after the first round, you should have figured out that every door gives equally random scores. Trying to keep the doors from shrinking in the second round is therefore irrational.

[Rozza]

I don't get it...
First: switches = 4, pts = 2128
Second: switches = 0, pts = 2446

In the first round I was experimenting a little: trying to figure it out if the generousness(?) of the doors is varying over time or not. But found that it's most likely invariant.
So I returned to the door I started with and didn't waste any further clicks on other doors.

In the second round I discovered that most probably the firstly clicked door is the best one again, since that was the case in the previous round, and the average value of clicks was around the same as last time (however the doors could have been of different characteristics, but seeing your scores they were not).

And then I'm left with a text saying
"More frequent switching when the doors are shrinking is most likely a reflection of an irrational tendency to keep your options open.
This tendency cost you points in the game, but it could have much larger implications in life..." which it didn't since "You switched 4 times less when the doors were shrinking.".

Nothing is said on the functioning of the doors (i.e. I suspect that always the fist door is the best one).

I'm also puzzled about Rozza's 2497 pts...



I might have got that wrong but I''m mild-moderately sure that's what the 2nd test displayed. I wouldn't place a bet on it though. :mellow:

[Karl]

I took it again, and I got the non-shrinking doors first. So it doesn't do it in the same order for everyone. I got the shrinking doors the first time, and I figured out that it didn't matter which door I clicked by the second time.

[pangolin]

I switched 9 times less when the doors were shrinking.

Um, "irrational tendency to keep your options open" is a suspect phrase. If the point values for each click are randomized, then having more options would be an advantage, no?

Or am I missing something?

I don't think there is any logical reasoning behind claiming that the tendency to keep your options open is 'irrational'. I suppose in the sense that you are using a perceiving function rather than a rational function, it is 'irrational', but irrational is a tricky word and tends to sound like 'unreasonable'. Fe is a rational function, but probably not a reasonable one, whereas Ne is an irrational function, but possibly a reasonable one.

Edit: I should add that I didn't do the second part of the game nor take note of the score on the first part, as it seemed rather pointless.

[Methofelis]

2406/2497


?

I just stuck to the same door.

More out of laziness than anything else, really...

[zhandao]

Somehow I didn't connect the fact that opening the door = a click. I spent the entire first run wasting my clicks switching doors. *Dumb* I somehow realized this during the shrinking run, thus my score was something like 1000/2000.

[Ferrus]

An irrational desire to see my options open - or rather that in the early stages of the game there seems a deliberate tendency for repeatedly clicking a door to lead to declining points?

[Jennywocky]

More out of laziness than anything else, really...

Hmmm, success through laziness.
Gawd, I gotta try that!

I bought the book, by the way -- very interesting title about basic behavioral economics. Good for the lay reader.

[Kalyrn]

At first I clicked on the doors randomly because I don`t like following instructions. 1990|2250