Valentine s Day


Valentine’s Day

Why do men give flowers to their girlfriend(s) on Valentine’s Day, and why do women who don’t receive flowers on Valentine’s Day get depressed? Flowers on Valentine’s Day signal love, and many of us are worse off for it.

Women are often uncertain if any of the men in their lives are romantically interested in them. Since it’s customary for men to give women whom they desire flowers on Valentine’s Day, women who don’t receive flowers learn something. They learn that it is not likely that any of their male acquaintances are romantically pursuing them. Valentine’s Day is a day of judgment for many women, and so those who don’t receive flowers sometimes feel damned.

Game theory almost forces a man to give flowers to his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. Flowers, particularly roses, are expensive (especially on Valentine’s Day). Men who don’t really care about their girlfriends consequently won’t spend the money to get them flowers. Could a man who did care about his girlfriend convince her that he didn’t need to buy her Valentine’s Day flowers? Yes, but this would be like a smart person convincing his employer that he is intelligent even if he didn’t graduate from college. Recall that graduating from college separates a smart from an unintelligent person, because only the smart person can go to college. Thus, if almost every smart person goes to college, it would be extremely unlikely that someone who didn’t graduate is still intelligent.

Similarly, if almost all men buy flowers for their girlfriends whom they still care about, then most women will believe that not getting flowers signals their boyfriend’s disinterest. Men are thus in a trap, for we are actually made worse off by not giving flowers. Men who (a) don’t care about their girlfriends and (b) don’t buy their girlfriends flowers have an incentive to lie and pretend that they still do care about their girlfriends. Consequently, it’s difficult for men who care but don’t buy flowers to convince their girlfriends of their devotion Furthermore, if a woman knows that her boyfriend knows that she would be upset if she didn’t get flowers, then the woman is automatically justified in getting upset if she doesn’t get them, for now her boyfriend has knowingly hurt her. We are all in a horrible Valentine’s Day game theory trap with no solution but for all of us men to waste large sums of money on expensive, soon-to-wither, thorn-studded vegetation.




Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 260

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