Can you put a price on how much money you would spend to risk becoming violently ill?

What is the likelihood of the violent illness resulting in death?

No chance of it resulting in death.

Have you had food poisoning? Priceless.

Zero. I would rather go hungry than to risk food poisoning or worse.

Unless overwhelmed with gnawing hunger, I’d not risk food poisoning because diarrhea and/or vomiting for DAYS is no fun.

I had food poisoning one time only. When I had it, I wished for death. It was very painful and scary.

I would have to go to the hospital if I got food poisoning. Not worth it.

Ummm,.. I’d give it a try for a hundred. I figure the odds are so small and the penalty is not so bad. I have had food poisoning. In pre-olympics Korea. It was a bad day but as long as I was near a bathroom I could survive easily. My eating habits never changed and I was never sick again. Did I build up an immunity?

By the way in my house when the question comes up “What would you like for dinner?” I often answer “WIGR”, Whatever Is Getting Rotten.

Given the way the question is presented, eating the food appears to be an example of what is sometimes called the sunk cost fallacy. The money spent on the food item is already lost, and risking food-poisoning will not get it back. Things might be different if you were being dared to eat something suspicious in order to win money (note that I said “might”), but there really isn’t anything to be gained in the case at hand.

I paid good money to throw up in college. Maybe 30 bucks so I can get some Scotch after.

I’m with @SavoirFaire. I think if I had paid $20 for something I would have made damn sure it got into the fridge.

I wouldn’t eat anything tho that would make me sick.

@worriedguy Your bout of food poisoing sounds pretty mild to the case that I had. I was doubled up from cramps on the floor of the bathroom for 2 days. I had diahrea and vomiting and the burning sensation and cramping in my stomach was so bad that I often couldn’t even pull myself up to use the toilet. Unfortunately, I was out of town, in a hotel and my friends had all gone to the conference for why we were in this hotel. I couldn’t even get to the phone. I literally thought I was going to be left for dead and I probably would have tried to kill myself if the pain hadn’t let up.

Just to let you know, I got food poisoning from a McDonald’s egg McMuffin.

Nope. It doesn’t matter what it cost – if I am even slightly concerned, I put it to the kids’ test, i.e., would I give it to my kids? If no, then why would I eat it myself?

No amount of money already spent on the food is worth the risk to me. As @SavoirFaire says, though… if I were to win a large amount of money for eating something risky, I might do it. It’d have to be over 10 grand, I think.

@augustlan Fear Factor pays 50K – up for it?

@zensky Not a chance in hell. No way am I eating a cow eyeball or bull penis. Not for any amount of money!

If in doubt I leave it. My last bout was E coli from a steak. Holy mother of god, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Days laying on the floor, curled in a ball, getting up only when stuff was flying out.

I’m not sure if this question is explained properly. I think the situation is that you’ve already spent a certain amount of money. Maybe $10 or maybe $50 or maybe $500. The money is spent. Gone. Before you is the food you bought and now you are told you have an elevated risk of food poisoning if you eat it. You may or may not get food poisoning. The food poisoning may or may not be severe. However you have a greater chance of getting food poisoning than you otherwise would.

At what price would you insist on trying the food despite the risk? I.e., at what price would you be unwilling to throw away the money without at least getting something for it, knowing that you could get pretty sick in addition to losing your money.

At least, that’s my attempt to make this problem make sense. If it’s not that, then I have no clue.

Of course, at a restaurant, we can always send the food back, so it’s not a real problem. Which makes our answers pretty speculative and unrealistic. No one would really know what they would do unless in the real situation.

I might spend, at most, $100 for an entree I believed would be totally fantastic. More than that, and I’m not going to the restaurant. If told the food was bad, and I would certainly get food poisoning (85% chance), and I couldn’t have my money back (some kind of lottery), then I would walk away. If it was a 10% chance, I would probably eat it. I think I would walk away at around a 30% or higher chance of getting sick, leaving $100 on the table.

The amount of money wouldn’t matter. I never spend more than I think something is worth or that I can afford. Since I don’t spend more than I can afford, I can walk away from it if I have made a mistake.

@wundayatta Which answers make you think the question isn’t explained properly? Most of them seem to understand it, even if they have an addendum regarding what they’d do in a slightly different situation.