It would be interesting to re-frame the test as “start with 50 points. Get 1⁄2 for a correct answer, lose 1⁄2 for don’t know, and lose 1 for a wrong answer”. I suspect your friends would accept this as equivalent scoring, and would start guessing more.
The loss aversion is probably less strong because they’re already taking a loss by not guessing, so losing just a bit more isn’t that painful.
I just realized: I think (I cannot swear to it) that my SAT study guide book did that exact thing—renormalize the scoring algorithm so that leaving a blank was a loss of points.
It would be interesting to re-frame the test as “start with 50 points. Get 1⁄2 for a correct answer, lose 1⁄2 for don’t know, and lose 1 for a wrong answer”. I suspect your friends would accept this as equivalent scoring, and would start guessing more.
The loss aversion is probably less strong because they’re already taking a loss by not guessing, so losing just a bit more isn’t that painful.
I just realized: I think (I cannot swear to it) that my SAT study guide book did that exact thing—renormalize the scoring algorithm so that leaving a blank was a loss of points.
Nice application of the Allais Hack.