Game Theory and Addiction
In Dr. Shahram Heshmat’s article, “Applying Game Theory to Recovery from Addiction”, Heshmat discusses an addict’s struggle between their current and future selves. Heshmat finds similarities between the cycle of addiction and the paradoxical Prisoner’s Dilemma. As we have discussed in class, the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game in which two players’ acting in their own self-interest results in a non-optimal outcome. Alternatively, if the players conspire, it is possible that they each achieve the highest possible payoff. However, this difficult to achieve because acting in self interest is the dominant strategy for each player. In addiction, one’s current and future selves are opponents. The current self’s dominant strategy is indulging, with high value attached to temptation. Thus, it is only in the future selves’ best interest to maintain abstinence.
Using insights from the Prisoner’s Dilemma, it is possible to help addicts change their current self’s behavior. Within the Prisoner’s Dilemma, there is great conflict of interest between the players. By reducing the conflict of interest, players can obtain the optimal outcome and receive the highest payoffs. Researchers Daniel Bartels and Oleg Urminsky of the University of Chicago discovered that, “the less consumers are closely connected psychologically to their future selves, the less willing they will be to forgo immediate benefits in order to ensure larger deferred benefits to be received by that future self” (Bartels & Urminsky, 2011). If an addict can perceive their present and future selves as one identity (conspire), the two opponents will thereby share similar goals. This may assist in breaking the cycle of addiction.