How Game Theory applies to Parenting
It’s often very difficult for parents to get their children to do less-than-desirable tasks, such as eating their vegetables or cleaning up their mess. For example, it is argued that to actually get the child to clean up, you should request for one toy at a time to be put away. This way, one child will put one toy away, the other child puts another toy away, and you repeat this until the room is cleaned. Another method is to have alternating clean up days for each child.
| Child 2 cleans | Child 2 doesn’t clean | |
| Child 1 cleans | (neutral, neutral) | (unhappy, happy) |
| Child 1 doesn’t clean | (happy, unhappy) | (get in trouble, get in trouble) |
If child 2 cleans, child 1 will not want to clean. If child 2 doesn’t clean, child 1 is better off cleaning. But, if child 1 cleans, child 2 will not want to clean. If child 1 doesn’t clean, child 2 is better off cleaning. This is because being unhappy in this case is a better outcome than getting in trouble. Thus, the Nash Equilibria in this case would be {(child 1 cleans, child 2 doesn’t clean), (child 1 doesn’t clean, child 2 cleans)}.
Another instance of how game theory applies to parenting is picking a bedtime story. Let’s say that child 1, child 2, and child 3 play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to pick the bedtime story. In this case, let’s assume that child 1 won, and so child 1 gets to pick the bedtime story. If child 2 and child 3 don’t agree with the choice, no one gets a story.
| Child 3 wants story | Child 3 doesn’t want story | |
| Child 2 wants story | (happy, happy) | (unhappy, unhappy) |
| Child 2 doesn’t want story | (unhappy, unhappy) | (unhappy, unhappy) |
In this case, it is child 2 and child 3’s dominant strategy to want the story. Otherwise, they won’t get a story, and they will be unhappy. Therefore, the Nash Equilibrium will be (Child 2 wants story, Child 3 wants story).
These are just two examples of game theory strategies parents can use to get their kids to cooperate. Other examples include getting children to eat vegetables, punishing children, and sleep training babies.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/game-theory-secrets-for-parents-1405005848