All-or-Nothing: Relationships and Game Theory
What does the word “marriage” mean to you? For myself and many others, marriage is seen as the ultimate form of a relationship characterized by love and intimacy. Similar to how a relationship transforms from casual acquaintance to spouse, so too has the definition of marriage. In the past, marriage was an institution to secure wealth and status. However, Jessica Carson, a Huffington Post writer and neuropsychologists, asserts that relationships in general have lost these callous motivations. In their place, the modern individual is searching for someone to be a “trusted sidekick, inspire our journey of personal exploration, and satisfy our lust for novelty, among other things…”
How do products of Generation Y fulfill this need to find the robin to their batman, especially when studies show that the average relationship is worse than ever? Here lies the notion of a “relationship” game. The players in this case are two people seeking to enter into a relationship, and the payoff is their respective relationship satisfaction and the longevity of the relationship. The payoff matrix is displayed below.
|
|
Person B | |||
|
Person A |
Hell Yeah |
No |
||
|
Hell Yeah |
6 , 6 |
-2 , 1 |
||
|
No |
1 , -2 |
0 , 0 |
||
The numbers within the matrix are arbitrary but capture the greater ideas at play. Moreover, the strategies for each person are the same and model Carson’s “All-or-Nothing Institution” in which you only settle for starting relationships with people deemed “the one”. Thus, Carson posits a binary paradigm for relationships that requires each person to fully commit, represented by Hell Yeah, or to keep searching, represented by No. In order to achieve equilibrium, both persons must either agree to fully commit or agree to part ways. According to Carson, both partners must agree to fully commit in order to have the highest chance at a successful and fulfilling relationship.
For more information, here is the link to Carson’s article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jess-carson/why-relationships-should-be-hell-yeah-or-no_b_9068170.html.