This last week I have watched the Teen Jeopardy Tournament with great interest. I marveled over some of the simple historical questions the younger generation did not have a clue about, while being equally impressed by their grace under pressure and quick answers in other areas. it was very instructive.
But, the most striking thing that jumped out at me was the performance of the female players. In terms of their knowledge based performance they held their own and gave no quarter. But the thing to remember is that Jeopardy is a game based not only on knowledge but also your ability to risk. Time after time when the opportunity presented itself to move ahead by a bold move the female players wavered which ultimately resulted in their losing their event.
One female contestant led the event substantially until it came to final Jeopardy. She had already won a good deal of money during the lead up sessions so the college fund was safe; the goal at this stage of the event was to move forward with the largest amount of money to make the final. In other words: Go big or go home! The male players understood this and bet bold amounts of money recognizing that accumulation was the major factor and doubled their scores. The female player bet a mere $2000 which to me indicated that she had opted for safety rather than risk and as a result fell from first to third and did not advance even though her answer was correct.
Videos of Leonard Cooper’s bold maneuver during Double Jeopardy of betting everything to double his score from $18,200 to $36,200 are all over the web. It was truly a gutsy move that bordered on reckless as evidenced by the huge gasp that came from the audience. But Leonard recognized that the game leader had a better grasp of the current categories and he needed to do something to give himself an advantage. “That was my first and only Daily Double of the entire tournament and I wasn’t going to waste it,” said Leonard. Doing nothing or risking it all could result in the same outcome: losing. He opted to risk it all! This same risk analysis occurred in Final Jeopardy when he I think reasoned that his main competitor was good at geography and math but not history, opted to do nothing and won!
My quandary for the female players is that female risk aversion is sometimes a good thing to counter the male tendency for risk. The two can often complement each other. But how do you train girls that in a fight to the death, safety is not always the “go to” response. I wrote recently about the gender wage gap and how women’s own approach to negotiation is a major factor in continuing the disparity that Jeopardy only served to highlight. My congratulations to Leonard and the other players both male and female, but the outcome of Jeopardy tells me we still have a way to go for females.