Some pocket money

Adrian and I participated in a couple survey at his college this afternoon. It was for a study conducted by researchers examining how couples make decisions. Firstly, each of us had to choose between 2 options to several questions. Then we had to predict the options that our partners had chosen. Finally, we came together to make a joint decision to the same questions we had answered earlier. Then we were to pick one envelope containing a number to the question and earn money according to the option I had chosen for that question.

For example:

Option one ->If the number you pick from the bag is between 1-20, you will get £40 and your partner will get £40. If the number is between 21-100, you will get £20 and your partner will receive £20.

Option two ->If the number you pick from the bag is between 1-40, you will get £0 and your partner will get £40. If the number is between 41-60, you will get £40 and your partner will get £40. If the number is between 61-100, you will get £20 and your partner will get £40.

All the questions were similar to the above. Apparently, the typical earnings is £20 per person. Unfortunately, the number that we picked was 1. And the option I chose for that question was for any number between 1-100 picked from the bag, I would earn £20 but nothing for my partner. You would have asked why I didn't choose the other option which could earn us more than £20. But for that option, there's a chance that I would pick a number which would see us earning nothing at all. Adrian didn't go away with nothing though. He got £3 for guessing correctly the options I made.

Sounds confusing? I think so too. And what do you gather from this? I'm not very much a risk-taker. But then again, it's just our luck we picked number 1. It depends on how you see it.