Ethical Houston

 Game theory is the study of strategic, interactive decision making among rational individuals. (Teaching Company, 2008)  So, why do we want to consider games and game theory as it relates to ethics?   Answer—because we all play games and most of these games have ethical consequences.  Games are not just board games, or sports.  They are at the focal point of our life together.  And we begin with these games at a very early age.   Take for example a child who wants a cookie before a meal.  Her mother has told her that the rule is that she can’t have dessert before dinner and then only if she eats her vegetables.  And the mother has told the child that if she breaks the rule that she will not be able to have dessert for three days.  But the child really wants the cookie.  So the small mind begins to weigh the payoff of getting a cookie before dinner thereby receiving the payoff of eating the cookie and either getting caught thereby suffering consequences or not getting caught thereby having it reinforced that sometimes you don’t get caught.  The question then becomes, does the risk justify the reward and the possible consequences, if caught.

 There are basically only two decisions that the child can make; take the cookie or don’t take the cookie.  And the payoff and consequences are pretty clear too.  As the child is young there are no moral consequences or a greater payoff or consequences for the action.  The child may not want to disappoint mother, but even that may be overridden by the desire to have the cookie.  This is probably the simplest example of a life game.  Unfortunately, this scenario is not limited to small children.  We see many adults, some of whom end up in prison, who don’t think beyond the, I want decision and the “what will be my payoff and possible consequence”.   It’s all about “me”. 

 When I was working as a family therapist, parents would bring their children in with a behavior problem.  Simply put, the child wouldn’t follow the family’s rules or would act out.  I suggested the tried and true, “time out” consequence which involved sending the child into isolation for a couple of minutes to regain their composure, think about what they had done, and give mother a few minutes of rest.  After a week or two of this prescription the parent would often come back and say that “time out” was not working.  My reply would be that working didn’t necessarily mean that the child would stop the undesirable behavior.  It only meant that if the consequences were consistent, swift, and appropriate that the child would know that the consequence would always happen.  In most cases though, the parent could not be consistent thereby reinforcing with the child that sometimes they could get by with inappropriate behavior and thereby receiving their positive payoff.  We know that with older children and adults that this type of punitive consequence response has limited results.  As the child gets older, there has to be a buy-in to the process of risk, rewards and rules.  The child must come to realize that there are broader implications to their actions.  This is when the games we play become more complex and have implications in the greater scheme of things. 

 But this little game still has implications for us adults.  How many of us, knowing that we would not always get caught speeding would not bend the rules occasionally.  Most of us have sped from time to time or rolled through stop signs and never gotten caught.  We rationalize that we’ve hurt no one, so an occasional infraction is justified.   Human nature dictates that sometimes we will bend conventional rules.  And that’s not always inappropriate.  But most of us realize that there are always consequences and rewards to our actions, even if we don’t know the rules of the game. 

 The example of the child and the cookie shows us that there are innate responses to situations.  At the core of those decisions small children don’t take into consideration such things as empathy and the greater good.  Those concepts have to be taught and experience tells us that not all persons respond in the same manner to those areas.  We know that some people are more empathetic than others and that other people will risk more and are willing to suffer more consequences. 

 In articles to come, I will explore other ways we play games and how they can be create positive or negative results in society as they relate to the law, ethics, morality and responsibility.