When we saw movies and read books about revenge, we always thought how cool and just it was. What always motivated the hero was “I am obligated to do justice.”
But when I started looking at these stories from a perspective that tried to figure out the smartest way to maximize utility, I saw how ridiculous and stupid revenge is.
People may not understand this because they are acting on emotion. And therefore justifying stupid actions that they do. And the real answer is if you want to continue from the bad place you are in right now because of someone, the rational thing to do is to do what you can to grow back to where you were instead of spending your energy on things that happened in the past and cannot be changed.
Is this a general argument against precommitments?
If I say “if you do X, I will do a horrible thing Y”, I am not saying it because doing Y is smart per se. I am saying it to discourage you from doing X. The problem is, I have to follow on my promise, if you actually do X anyway. At least, if you can predict that I would change my mind and not do Y, then you have no reason to stop doing X.
Whether doing this entire exercise is rational, that depends on many things, such as the probability of a threat discouraging one from doing X. In general, that is very difficult to evaluate.
But anger evolved for a reason. If it was a purely stupid thing, evolution would not have selected for it.
When we saw movies and read books about revenge, we always thought how cool and just it was. What always motivated the hero was “I am obligated to do justice.”
But when I started looking at these stories from a perspective that tried to figure out the smartest way to maximize utility, I saw how ridiculous and stupid revenge is.
People may not understand this because they are acting on emotion. And therefore justifying stupid actions that they do. And the real answer is if you want to continue from the bad place you are in right now because of someone, the rational thing to do is to do what you can to grow back to where you were instead of spending your energy on things that happened in the past and cannot be changed.
Would you agree on 1:99 Ultimatum split? They set their offer, it’s in the past, acting on spite could only lower your reward, right?
Is this a general argument against precommitments?
If I say “if you do X, I will do a horrible thing Y”, I am not saying it because doing Y is smart per se. I am saying it to discourage you from doing X. The problem is, I have to follow on my promise, if you actually do X anyway. At least, if you can predict that I would change my mind and not do Y, then you have no reason to stop doing X.
Whether doing this entire exercise is rational, that depends on many things, such as the probability of a threat discouraging one from doing X. In general, that is very difficult to evaluate.
But anger evolved for a reason. If it was a purely stupid thing, evolution would not have selected for it.