Being Fashionably Late to a Party
One of the most awkward parts of nights in college can be the began stages of parties. There are many kinds of websites devoted to discussing the best time to arrive at a party, like this forum on eHow (http://www.ehow.com/how_2097455_arrive-fashionably-late.html). Often, the social norm for these kind of events involves showing up “fashionably late” to these soirees, instead of at the time specified. Game theory applies to this concept in which two players are choosing between two options, arriving on time, and arriving ‘fashionably late’. The pay off for everyone arriving on time is that the party gets started much sooner, since everyone is there, so more fun can be had. If both players show up, this gets a pay off of 5 for each, and if both show up fashionably late, they get a pay off of 3 each. If only one shows up on time, then they get a payoff of 0, while the other player gets a payoff of 1 because they spend their time not atthe party doing other enjoyable activities.
This situation corresponds the the payoff matrix pictured to the side. As you can see it has two pure strategy Nash equilibria, which is different from the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This is kind of situation is frequently referred to as the Stag Hunt game, in which two hunters can choose between hunting a stag and hunting a rabbitt. Although the pay off is much higher for both to hunt the stag, having the other hunter not cooperate by going after the stag leaves the hunter with nothing. This situation shows that the best option for the collective in to all be on time to the party, but the risk of losing time and standing around awkwardly before the arrival of other party goers deters people from showing up on time. Because of this risk factor, usually everyone shows up fashionably late to a party, despite there being a higher payoff for everyone involved if they all arrived on time.
-HPGalaxy2