Game Theory and Parenting

In a newsweek interview, University of Maryland economist Ginger Jin explains what game theory reveals about parenting. The findings are quite meaningful, e.g. "Parents are always stricter with their first born". Moreover, "Having one additional younger brother or sister can lower the chance that an adolescent will drop out of high school by 3 percentage points.", and "Though parents are much less likely to financially support or put up with a rebellious teen if there are still younger children at home, their resolve weakens as older siblings move out and younger siblings grow up." Maybe game theory can also reveal what are the best parenting strategies?

Dealing with parenting styles, this article on wallet pops talks about how a parent used game theory to stop a sibling rivalry. The parent gives a child 50 cents if one is better behaved than the other. On the other hand if they are both perfect at the end of the day then they both get a dollar. The game was set up and both children decide to be perfect for the most part showing that the children are rational.

Raising kids on Bribery

In a perfect world, where everyone is rational and emotions are under lock and key in some broom closet in the basement, bribing would work. The best way to get people in line is for rational incentives to overtake free will. Instead of kids expressing themselves in their own unique way, bribing them channels all of their actions and emotions into a mold that the parents want. But is that necessarily a good thing? Imagine a kid who grew up through the bribing system. When he becomes an adult, he will only do things that would result in a kickback. Why would someone do community service, when doing it results in no monetary or physical gain? Why would someone be generous and look out for others when they would potentially get nothing back in return.

The bribery system may work for keeping children in line, but at the same time they will never grow up and mature into the type of people that the world needs most. We have enough selfish people in the world, and just because some parents are lazy and would rather pay for their kids' good behavior, doesn't mean it should replace putting in the effort in raising them to be productive members of society.