Do you wish you could intimidate your opponents with shifty eyes like Phil Ivey? Or have the impassive stoicism of Chris Ferguson? Well a recent study suggests that you’re better off with the wholesome, friendly face of Jack McBrayer.
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BPS Research Digest Blog reports on a 2010 study that took a look at human waging behavior. Participants in the study had to decide whether to fold or call based on an image of their “opponent.” Here are the images the participants saw (without the labels).
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If the participant folded, he or she was guaranteed to lose 100 chips. If the participant called and was beat, he or she would lose their entire 5000 chip stack. Calling and winning would win 5000 chips. There was no prior history available about the opponents so participants had to make a decision based on the face alone. Now for the interesting part…
Untrustworthy and neutral expressions had no effect on the participants’ decision-making process but the trustworthy face gave the participants problems.
When confronted with the trustworthy face, participants took longer to decide and made less optimal decisions. I can’t help but wonder if there’s a way these findings would apply to online poker as well.
Thanks to Rush Poker on Full Tilt we have the opportunity to play opponents in a vacuum. There are times, many times, where the only information we have to work with is a screen name and maybe an ironman chip. I’m curious – can screen names be neutral, untrustworthy or trustworthy? Would you be more likely to fold to a raise from HoneyFlower21 than from IstackUR_azz?
What do you think?
Schlicht EJ, Shimojo S, Camerer CF, Battaglia P, & Nakayama K (2010). Human wagering behavior depends on opponents’ faces. PloS one, 5 (7) PMID: 20657772
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