Enlightened self-interest

Perhaps this qualifies as "Freakonomics"? I noticed that when I offer my (18 month old) daughter Zoe a biscuit (cookie) or something equivalent, she immediately requests another for her brother, (4 year old) Isaac. I was discussing this with her mother and grandmother the other day and they both opined that she was a sweet, generous girl. I, of course, agreed but then an alternative to this altruistic hypothesis suggested itself to me. Given Isaac's ability and tendency to just grab whatever Zoe has off her, it occurred to me that her strategy might have been to protect her property from this depredation by obtaining, at no cost to herself - it would still be categorised as a biscuit "for" Isaac - an equivalent item for her brother thus forestalling the grab .

Comments

[Abiola Lapite]

Now *that* is clever. Don't you worry that you have yourself a little Cardinal de Richelieu there? Imagine how many moves ahead she'll be thinking by the time she gets to the "terrible teens" age.

[Ciarán]

But that can be seen either way: she may indeed have simply calculated the best tactic to forestall the grab. Alternatively, she may have figured that inegalitarian schemes tend to breed resentment and that arrangements should be established that benefit the least well off.

You have a Rawlsian on your hands!

[Frank McGahon]

..a little Cardinal de Richelieu there?

An eminence terrible!

she may have figured that inegalitarian schemes tend to breed resentment and that arrangements should be established that benefit the least well off.

Ciaran, tempting though your hypothesis is, it ignores the fact that in this circumstance, she is the "least well off": the "redistribution" she proposes is to the person who (currently) enjoys a quasi-monopoly of force. Further, it's not exactly a redistribution, she is arranging for her brother to receive property he would have been due anyway, but at a time and in a manner as to reduce his incentive to grab hers.

[eoin]

She didn't "calculate" anything. She is 1 and a half, for chrissakes. She is a generous girl. Let's apply Occam's razor where tis due, unless you think this "calculation" is inate, unknown to her, and unwillful.

[Frank McGahon]

I'd say that Occam's razor favours calculation over altruism - it might seem natural for a child to be "generous" but that is just "adultomorphising", self-interest is innate, altruism is acquired.

[Frank McGahon]

What I mean is that altruistic behaviour is actually harder to explain than self-interested behaviour

[Ciarán]

Fair enough. She's evil.

[Frank McGahon]

Well, I remember at the age of 3, on holiday in Spain, "calculating" that if my (2 year old) sister wasn't around anymore that I'd have our parents all to myself and pushing her into the deep end of the swimming pool. Perhaps she's just her father's daughter!

[Ciarán]

Don't worry. At least she's not a boy. I never tire of recounting the tale entitled 'the day my brother hung me by the neck of our neighbour's wall.'

Importantly, though, we did get the football back.

[Ciarán]

I mean 'off our neighbour's wall...'

Obviously the blood-flow hasn't quite returned...