Jason Liew

 

I’m not teaching you how to lie.

However, if you did screw up your relationships and being stuck in a love triangle. Game Theory might help.

Supposingly, “A” treats you really good, her trust and faith in you makes you feel really guilty about your affairs with B.

And now, everyday you are being tortured by your self-righteous and moral values. You are in a dillema whether to confess to “A” about your relationship with “B”.

 

Assuming ”A” is a reasonably rational and orservant person that has felt something wrong about Player in the long run. And, “A” is in a dillema of asking or ignoring what  she has been suspecting in you.

 

Let’s contruct the game table.

 

 

Explanation:

 

The payoff is the amount of lover that the particular person possesses after the decision making.

 

• If Victim chooses “Ask”, and Player chooses “Confess”
  Assuming victim to be a rational person, she will decide to dump her bf. Therefore, victim is left with 0 lover. After being dumped by victim, Player is left with 1 lover (the B) instead of 2 (A & B).

Therefore, the payoff is ( 0, 1 ).

• If Victim chooses “Ignore”, and Player chooses “Confess”
  Victim chooses to ignore the suspicious behaviour of Player, but Player decided to confess due to guiltiness. Victim has a 50-50 probability of dumping Player, hence the expected outcome for Victim’s lover amount is 0.5 statistically.

         P (x=breakup) = 0.5 x 0 lover
                               =0

         P ( x=not breakup )= 0.5 x 1 lover

                                     = 0.5

         ExP(x) = expected outcome

                   = 0 + 0.5

                   = 0.5

 

Bringing the amount of 0.5 to Player who has another gf (the B), his total amount of lover is 1.5 mathemathically.

The payoff is (0.5 , 1.5)

 

• If Victim chooses “ask”, and Player chooses “not confess”
  Victim will also has a 50-50 probability of dumping Player due to her suspicion. Victim might lose faith or feel that Player has changed, he is no longer the Player she fell in love in the past. However, there is an equal share of chance that Victim might choose to believe Player still.

Therefore, the outcome is similiar to the previous case of {Ignore, Confess}
yielding a payoff of ( 0.5 , 1.5 ).

 

• If Victim chooses “Ignore” , and Player chooses “Not Confess”
  Obviously, this is the best outcome. There isn’t any confrontation. Victim will have 1 bf, which is Player. While Player will have 2 gf in total.

The payoff is (1 , 2)

 

 

Analysis:

 

It is not hard to figure out that, Player has a strict dominant strategy in this simultaneous game.

 

• When Victim chooses “Ask”, Player gets a higher return by choosing “Not Confess” (1.5 > 1)
• When Victim chooses “Ignore”, Player also gets a higher return by choosing “Not confess” (2 > 1.5)

In conclusion, when things fall apart and love fades away, no matter what Victim chooses, Player will choose “Not Confess” in this decision making, provided that Player is a rational and payoff-oriented decision maker.

 

Today, Game Theory has added another reason or excuse for “Why people lie in relationships”. Recalling the first class of microeconomics I had in Melbourne University, recalling the Ten Principles of Economics in Mankiw textbook, perhaps we just have to admit that, in every affair, every betrayal, every confrontation, every decision making, every relationship failure, there is nothing personal, it is just Economics.