If you think you know how people make decisions, you can test yourself and have fun with a new card game from Duke professor Dan Ariely.
Ariely, James B.Duke professor of psychology and behavioral economics, launched a Kickstarter campaign Oct. 20 to develop the Irrational Card Game, meeting his funding goal of $15,000 within the first two hours and tripling it within 24 hours. The game asks players to predict the outcomes of interesting social science experiments. Sales proceeds will go towards funding new research at the Center for Advanced Hindsight, directed by Ariely, which studies decision-making in areas such as health, marketing and relationships.
“Truly understanding human nature is being able to predict the outcome of an experiment,” Ariely said.
Ariely studies rational and irrational decision-making, has written several books and released a documentary this past summer titled "Dishonesty: The Truth About Lies." He is also the co-founder of BEworks, which aims to use behavioral science techniques to solve businesses' problems.
To play the game, players must correctly predict the results of social science experiments based on short descriptions on the cards. The cards are divided into categories, such as incentives, awareness, time and perceptions. The game also has strategic components—players are able to trade and steal cards or skip a question.
The game's experiments will be selected by researchers at the center. Catherine Berman, a research associate at the center, noted that studies are picked based on their significance to psychology or behavioral economics, as well as how fun or surprising they are. Not every study in the game can have counterintuitive results, however, or players would always guess the most outlandish answer, she said.
As of Monday, the Kickstarter campaign has raised more than $150,000, far in excess of the initial goal of $15,000, which Ariely said was only to cover the fixed costs of developing the game.
He noted that the campaign has allowed him to respond to feedback as he continues to develop the game. For example, to address concerns about whether players will get bored with a few rounds the game is, Ariely is considering adding different types of cards and themes that would focus not on finding the right answer, but rather on coming up with solutions to various psychological biases revealed throughout the game.
Ariely said that creating a physical game rather than a digital mobile game best allowed him to facilitate discussion about social science.
“We wanted to do something that has a group of people...sharing something with someone sitting next to you,” he said. "Why is this the result? What are the implications?"
He added that Kickstarter in itself has interesting psychological implications.
“The same people who download things illegally are willing to contribute to something on Kickstarter,” he said. “I think that the reason is that once something has been created you don’t feel the obligation to pay for it, [but with Kickstarter] you can credit yourself to helping to make it real.”
Also working on the game with Ariely and the center is Miki Mottes, an independent illustrator, animator and designer. Mottes wrote in an email that illustrating for the game is a long process, often taking between two to four hours per card, in order to find the best and most entertaining depiction.
Ariely noted that how the final version of the game will look is still undecided. The Kickstarter campaign ends on November 19th and has an expected delivery date of March 2016 for those pledging $24 or more.
“Because the game hasn’t been created yet...it can still change,” he said.
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