In many ways, game shows are just like psychological experiments. Scientists love to exploit our logical blind spots to show just how irrational human beings will act in the right circumstances. Of course the scientists can sleep well at night knowing that they're only making anonymous subjects look stupid in the name of progress, while game shows make people look stupid on national TV so we can laugh at them while they lose money. But it all balances out in the end, since the game show people can use all that money to buy medication to help them sleep at night.

6 Wheel of Fortune: Waste Your First Guess (aka the Steve Jobs Advantage)

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The first three rounds of Wheel of Fortune are a glorified hangman game in which turns follow one-on-one basketball rules: You get a letter right, you get to go again. The final round of group play, however, is the speed-up round, where Mr. Sajak gives the wheel a final spin and then the contestants take turns guessing a letter at a time and trying to solve the puzzle until someone gets the right answer.

Let's say you find yourself going first in the speed round. If you've watched Wheel of Fortune, you'll probably guess "E." Vowels don't cost anything in this round, and every Wheel watcher knows that "E" is the most common letter in the English language. As you hear the pleasing ding and watch Vanna walk up to the glowing puzzle pieces and flip them around, you'll probably feel pretty good about your guess.



"What is 'Chalupa Night'?"

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Congratulations, you've just done the stupidest thing you could have done with your turn. What you should have done is ask for something you're fairly certain won't be up on the board, like a "Z," or an "X," or an ampersand. This is because, despite what your impatient monkey brain tells you, going first is almost always a huge disadvantage.

How Does That Work?

Remember in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when the Nazis are trying to pass a series of trials to get to the Holy Grail, but all they're really doing is racing against each other to see who can die more horribly? Indy goes last and beats the game! Sure, Indy's smarter than Nazis, but how far do you think he would have gotten if he hadn't watched a bunch of them get decapitated and make poor cup choices?