Experimental “beauty contest” game and simultaneous decision-making within various groups

Abstract

The paper examines experimental guessing “p-beauty contest” game. The objective of the study is to conduct an experimental study of simultaneous decision-making by subjects within various groups in the “p-beauty contest” guessing game, and to estimate the influence of various factors. The interaction of factors was evaluated. The contribution to this study extends the analysis of simultaneous decision-making by individuals within various groups to the conditions of the “p-beauty contest” game. The subjects simultaneously took decisions, while being part of a group of three subjects, and as part of a group of six subjects. The results from the experiment showed that the subjects make more rational decisions, being in the larger group. The four-factor (a p-value, a group size, a period, and number of subjects) experimental design shows that the Factors “p-value” and “Number of subjects” main effects were significant. Further, the Factor “p-value” by Factor “Group size,” the Factor “Group size” by Factor “Period,” the Factor “Group size” by Factor “Number of subjects,” and the Factor “Period” by Factor “Number of subjects” interactions were also significant.