The Twins

Last Christmas, my neighbour came around to my place to our yearly Christmas dinner without her ten year old twin boys, so I had to ask where they were. "They are grounded for 3 months", she replied. "3 months"?, I asked out of exaggerated shock. "3 months", she replied matter of factly. On inquiring more about what "grave actions" her boys had taken that had landed them in 3 months worth of lost priviledges, she relayed the following story.

The previous Tuesday, the principal of her sons' school had called her requesting to see her immediately. She had never been requested to be seen by the principal of the school, so she hurriedly left her office and made the 30 minute commute to their school. On entering the principal's office, she found out that her boys had been in a fight with group of boys on the school bus and that they had been given letters to give to her. My neighbor was shocked...she knew that her kids were mischevious, but she had never known them to fight outside of the occassional brotherly spurts. What bothered her even more was the fact that they had both been given letters to give to her and she had never seen those letters. What had become of her boys?

As they drove home that afternoon, my neighbour was besides herself. She had raised her children properly and the fact that they had not only fought on the bus but also not given her the letter was of a huge disappointment to her. She finally got the reasoning from the both of them (one of them was being picked on and the other came to his rescue...a fight ensued and they were reported to their teachers. The teachers reported the incident to the principal who sent a letter informing her of the fight and requesting her presence in the school, but because she had been a "no show", the school had to call her). They were grounded for 3 months with no tv, movie, "hanging out with the boys" priviledges. Using the concepts of SDA, I now understand why the boys acted the way they did.

After realizing that their actions was going to land them in trouble, the boys had evaluated their payouts based on the actions they decided to take. The below are the payouts:

If they both told their mother what happened, they might as well kiss their Nintendo DS goodbye and face a disappointed mother (this was their biggest loss). This payoff was valued at -10 for the both of them

If neither one of them spoke up, they'd get their highly sought after game and the dotting love of their mother. This payoff was valued at 50 for the both of them.

If one spoke up and the other didn't, the one who spoke up would secure his mother's trust and respect forever.......while the one who chose to remain silent would be identified as the black sheep forever....This payoff was valued at 100 for the one that spoke up, and 25 for the one that remained silent.

Considering that their mother was called to the principal's office, one can only conclude that the boys selected the payoff that was best for them. Though this was a prisoner's dilema (because both boys had incentive to cheat as there was a better pay off for each of them if they opted to veer from the agreement to stay silent), the boys chose to remain loyal to themselves. How did their mother get the confession out of them? That was another game that was played...check out The Twins part 2.