"Unlike betting in Las Vegas, the Iowa Electronic Markets are not designed to make money for the market operators," Amaral says. "They are designed to use the wisdom of the crowds to find out what most likely will happen by aggregating the information possessed by a large number of people.
This approach extends beyond politics -- prediction markets like this one exist for everything from scientific breakthroughs to box-office profits.
"These studies are important because if people have some belief that these prediction markets are doing a good job, then they will pay attention to what is going on with them,"