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Toilet Seat Dilemma

One of the most significant steps in a relationship is moving in together. When it comes to members of opposite sexes living under one roof, a seemingly trivial issue often arises: should the toilet seat be left up or down? What may start out as an offhand comment can spiral into full blown fights. Hammad Siddiqi uses game theory to address the social norm of leaving the toilet seat down. Although others have used Nash equilibrium to analyze the best solution to this issue with the goal of minimizing the cost of toilet set movements, Siddiqi’s analysis factors in the previously overlooked cost that is inflicted on the male when the female gets angry and yells at him.

In his article, Siddiqi presents two possible strategies:

A. Not changing the toilet seat position after use
B. Always putting the toilet seat down after use

Let C = the cost of moving the toilet seat up/down, p = probability that one will need to go to the bathroom for operation #1. Assume that both males and females go to the bathroom with equal frequency.

The following costs for each person when using the restroom were calculated based on the difference between the average cost and the cost when living on their own. Let D = cost inflicted on the male when the female yells at him when she finds that he left the toilet seat up.

Nash equilibria in pure strategies: (A, A) and (B, B)

Siddiqi concludes that the common use of strategy A (A, A) is inefficient as the total cost is higher than that of (B, B). However, he also mentions that the strategy combination (B, B) satisfies trembling-hand equilibrium which takes into account the possibility that an unintended strategy is chosen.

The material covered in lecture is highly relevant to this analysis as one of the main concentrations of this class is applying theories to real life situations. Siddiqi’s article gave me new insight into how game theory can be used to logically evaluate everyday problems and conflicts.

link: https://www.scq.ubc.ca/the-social-norm-of-leaving-the-toilet-seat-down-a-game-theoretic-analysis/

 

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