The External and Decision Making Costs of the Voting Game

Last weekend, my friends and I played “The Voting Game” for two hours straight. The basis of the game is to pick a description card, for example: “who talks about their ex the most?” and each player individually votes on who in the group best fits the card. In order to win the round, a simple majority has to occur, and whoever collects 6 question cards wins the game. This game concept is a popular one, and taps into the complications that can arise from majority vote in the simplest of settings.

To consider the external costs of the game, it is useful to analyze it from a situation where only one person is required to pick the winner of a round. This can be decided at any moment, and their decision is final. This would have significant external costs on the players, where the enjoyment of all voting on a player and debating the outcome after the round would be diminished. At the current rule, simple majority lowers these external costs by lowering the number of decisions that the individual expects to run contrary to his own desires, which would be to pick a player he didn’t vote for. With unanimous agreement, each player in the game unknowingly picks the same person for a descriptor card. This is rare, but ideal for the most humorous version of the game. In this case, external costs on the individual would be zero as everyone is satisfied with the outcome and it aligns with their preferences.

The decision making costs of the game in a scenario where only one person can decide the winner of a round, on the other hand, is very small. There is no need for the group to spend time debating the outcome in hopes of an overturned decision. When a simple majority is required, the time and effort to secure agreement is introduced. In the aftermath of the round, each person has to reveal who they voted for and why. Sometimes there are such split answers that the majority seems ineffective at fitting a card to a player, and the game turns into a heated debate on who should win. This increases the decision making costs of the game significantly, where the chance of hurt feelings and wasted time is more likely.