Sixth week

In this week we participated in two exercises that where fun and interesting. For the former we watch a video dealing with the poor water conditions in Ayole and the efforts that were made to fix successfully this problem. For the latter we played a fun game that had to do with life. In this section I will focus more on the thoughts that I had on the game rather than those of the movie.

In the game we made teams of four people, we randomly (or at least that’s what I think) received a character (photograph of a kid that had a red or blue frame). The game was full of traps, simulating difficulties in life that a person may or may not have throughout his life. The characters that had blue frames always succeeded to avoid any penalty when they landed on these spots, while the red ones where not so lucky (no one except the teacher was aware of this partiality). At the beginning of the game the professor told us that we were going to play this fun game and that the winner will receive one additional point in the grading scale while the looser will loose one.

Since part of our grade was at jeopardy, teams started to behave aggressively and for a moment it seemed as if each other miseries were other people happiness (for some people at least). At the end of the game the majority stated that the game was not fair but I get the feeling that they formulated that decision from empathy without truly judging the system.

In my case, I was in a handicapped team that lost against the other five teams. When asked whether the game was fair or not, I said that the game was fair because:
1. Everyone played under the same rules, meaning that they had the same possibility of receiving a good character or a handicapped one. Furthermore, we tossed a dice throughout the game thus we had a probability of 1/6 of winning and one of 1/6 of loosing the game.
2. We never disagree at the beginning or throughout the game that the system was unfair or that gambling part of our grades was not correct.

After thinking for a while I think the professor was trying to create a cognitive dissonance in the class, in addition, by jeopardizing a small portion of our grades some people may have internalized an attitude. But how good did it work? For people that stated that the game was not fair the empathy and some other feelings were greater at the end, but they didn’t really do anything to stop it meanwhile (thus accepting the reality). If they were playing the real game, this situation might generate even more cognitive dissonance, furthermore with little or not remuneration people might internalize the attitude deeper thus more people will be convinced that this game was fair.

Was my decision correct? Not really, while thinking of this, I missed part of the delusion.
1. We were not given an option at the beginning of the game whether we wanted to play it or not.
2. We were not given an option to quit the game
3. Our grades should be something we earn, not something left to luck.
After some thought, I got to the conclusion that this game was not as fair as I thought in that moment because I was missing these fundamental ideas. I also don’t think that it was completely unfair since, although not given the choice, I had the right to refuse to continue playing the game.

Then, what should I have done, without affecting the dynamics of the exercise? First of all I should have paid more attention to the pattern and the fact that our grades should not be left to luck, instead of thinking of winning or loosing, the probabilities behind them and the fate of our character. After doing this, I should have stood up when it was our turn (especially when we were not winning nor loosing), and claim that the game was not fair thus stepping away from it. (At this point I don’t think the professor would question my decision because it could jeopardize the dynamics of the exercise thus letting me out after unsuccessful tries to get me back in). Although this may not be the best way to deal with the game, I think its elegant and it wouldn’t break with the dynamics of the game ^^;;

After all the meditation, I think that this game was fun and it really made us “see” that the world is unfair and sometimes we must question the system and the society we live in.