How we Decide #1

While I was reading How We Decide, I was reading the part about Deal or No Deal which is a show I love, and one that my mom sent in an audition tape for, and also while watching on the T.v.I was wondering.

What makes a person make these horrible decisions in this game when they should really have just taken the money to begin with instead of chancing it?

Well, I know that since I am actually not there and not in the person's shoes, and not with the loud crowd and host talking to you and asking you the hard questions that the environment definitely plays a role. The mental defect the book talks about is called "Loss Aversion"  which is "When a person is confronted with an uncertain situation, like having to decide whether to accept an offer from the banker, the individual doesn't carefully evaluate the information of compute the Bayesian probabilities or do much thinking at all. Instead, the decision depends on a brief list of emotions, instincts, and mental shortcuts.

So, putting myself in the position of being on television, seeing the possibility of making rash decisions because of the loudness of the crowd, the millions of thoughts going on in your own head, the crowd telling you what to do, the host bombarding you with questions about what to do, plus your family screaming at you on the sideline, it is clear to me that its very easy to slip into Loss Aversion, us sitting at home aren't factoring everything in and can actually sit down and think about the choices during the commercial breaks, and do so in a calm manner.