Sway the Sawyer Challenge is played as a game in multiple rounds (10, 20, 40) between participants who are randomly
assigned to groups of twenty-five before the start of each round.
There are multiple Sawyers differing in terms of preference to color sequences, and one Sawyer is randomly assigned to each group at the start of every round.
Each round is arranged in a sequence of two stages – Task stage and Bidding stage.
In the first stage, you choose an 8 colors combination of red and black blocks sequence and seek superior delight
scores from Sawyer. You can iterate among the color combination of the block sequence multiple times by changing colors
in the blocks and requesting an evaluation of the final sequence to receive a delight score — typically in the
range of [0,1], from the Sawyer.
However, Sawyers use resources to respond, so each instance of evaluation incurs a minimal transaction cost of
.
In the second stage, based on your performance, difficulty level of the task and your belief about other group
member performance in stage one, you bid to choose the higher score between (1) Your personal score and (2)
The average score of all participants of your group which is not known publicly.