Game Theory

Yebbut, that strategy would lead to both remaining players reacting to the first buzzer. So no guarantee you could press second. Used alone, that strategy would only give a 50% chance of winning. Assuming equal reaction times.

So, an additional strategy would also be to press first, as soon as you were more than 2/3 sure six minutes was past.

Can they hear the opponent's buzzer though?

You are erroneously assuming that two players would be intelligent enough to work this out. Celebrities who have to resort to going on these TV shows are usually to thick to understand any logical solution.

Surely though, a sense ofthe bleedin obvious would suggest that nasty things that were too nasty could not happen when paid for by the tv channel, so really you just sit tight and think of other things.

Reminds me of the film The Magic Christian somewhat, where some people would do anything if the reward was enough. That was spoofed of course by Monty Python in a sketch as I recall. Brian

Of course it also assumes all contestants could see and hear each other. If each did it in isolation, then there would be no clues. You would be surprised how even members of Mensa go on these shows and make fools of themselves and others. Rula Lenska springs to mind here. Brian

Over here all this started with game for a laugh. However Endurance, at least the Japanese version was by far the daftest of them. I'm sure the youtube has the bit where people had their nipples burned by a magnifying glass by the sun or the one where young ladies had to put live lobsters down their panties. I think there are people in the world who will do absolutely anything because they just want attention, good or bad. Brian

Counting in my head to 100 = 115 seconds. Or would that be considered cheating?

A standard assumption of Game Theory is that all competitors are rational, intelligent, and attempt to maximise their chance of winning.

Thank you for all the replies :-)

Sometimes game theory doesn't line up with my logic which is probably why I never win anything!

But on TV the contestants are usually pre-selected and not necessarily based on intelligence.