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An online quiz game called 'World of Uncertainty' has been launched by researchers at Queen's University in an inventive bid to encourage more volunteers to contribute data to their new 'uncertainty' research.

Players are asked a variety of multiple choice, general knowledge questions and asked to rate their level of confidence in their response. The greater the confidence they assert in their answer, the more points they win if it is correct and the more they forfeit if it is wrong. The software then calculates their confidence levels relative to the accuracy of their answers and reveals to what extent they are over or under confident, or whether they are fortunate enough to be perfectly balanced.

Dr David Newman, the academic supervising this research, said: 'This project aims to get people who are involved in decision making to understand uncertainty as often our decisions can be distorted by our natural instinct to believe in stories. Instead of trying to eliminate uncertainty, it is our objective to explore it and look at how it can be handled with the aplomb of a bookmaker or a volcanologist forecasting ash clouds. We also hope the concept will be further developed by games manufacturers in the future.'

The game has not just been designed for one-off use. Jyldyz Tabyldy kyzy, the PhD student testing the game, explained: 'We really want players to play the game regularly and come back often to track their performance, as by doing so, they will contribute greatly to the research. We want to find out how well the game trains people to handle uncertainty better - whether they are experienced decision makers, risk experts, or students.'

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