Button Psych: Deal or No Deal

I love Deal or No Deal. I grew up watching game shows and I love this one. It perfectly counters probability analysis against classic human greed and then crystallizes that tension into whether or not you push a button.

As I’ve written about before, the button on Deal or No Deal symbolizes the final prize. You can cover up the button/prize and scream No Deal or you can push the button/prize and make a Deal. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.

But now you can listen to Howie Mandel (the host) talk about it himself. Watch Donny Deutsch from CNBC interview Howie about the psychology of the button, how contestants react to it and then slam it closed. An excerpt:

Howie: I love that it’s this lucite box that covers it. You can’t get to it but you can see it. The prize is there [pointing at the button] but you can’t get to it. You shut it out [closes case] but it’s still there to go “look what you gave up”.

Warning: This is laughingly bad quality video. Seriously. It’s filming the TV with my digital camera balanced on an ice bucket balanced on an upside-down trash can sitting on an ironing board in a hotel room at one o’clock in the morning bad. Literally.

Note: No more video

Howie: Forty-nine thousand dollars is guaranteed yours if you say “deal” and hit that button. You also have the chance of a lifetime left on the board… but this is a guarantee.

Donny: Speaking of which, [points to the button] the design of this… there’s something [closes and opens button case]… I don’t know, if you’re going to do a psychology of this particular thing [pushes the button]… what’s going on with people when they go [slams closed the button case]?

Howie: I don’t know. You would know better than me, but there’s such a [opens and closes the button case]… First of all, I love that it’s this lucite box that covers it. You can’t get to it but you can see it. The prize is there [pointing at the button] but you can’t get to it. You shut it out [closes case] but it’s still there to go “look what you gave up”. There’s so many elements. And I love the anger. I love that people go [slams case closed] NO DEAL and they run away and look at me and it’s “you know what, I’ll show you, I’m not taking home two hundred grand. I’ll show you.”

Donny: Is it always a demonstration of a combination of strength and insanity… [dangles another sentence] and I notice what happens most times, they do this [slams case closed, turns head, struts away] and they storm away. “No!”

Howie: Yes. They don’t even want to look at it.

Donny: “Keep me away from that damn thing.”

Howie: And if you see closely, you can see all the glue and the tape, this has been ripped off I can’t tell you how many times. [slams button case closed]