In the past, I have learned about Game Theory and the Prisoner’s Dilemma through my other Jepson classes such as Dr. Von Reuden’s Leadership and the Social Sciences and Dr. Coestee’s Justice and Leadership Class, however the in depth analysis of numerous concepts and premises for Game Theory in Rock, Paper, and Scissors was interesting and eye opening. One of the first major points Len Fisher makes that struck me was the idea that in a sense, all the dilemmas discussed are the same dilemma and the only total solution would be absolute cooperation (Fisher 56). This solution seems so simple, however based on the number of opinions and actions performed by each and every person, total cooperation seems impossible. Aside from this idea, I found the Volunteer’s Dilemma, and the single word description of “mamihlapinatapai” to be very interesting and quite relatable. In order to describe the prisoner’s dilemma, the Yagán Indians of Tierra del Fuego invented the term “mamihlapinatapai,” which literally means “looking at each other hoping that the other will offer to do something that both parties desire to have done but are unwilling to do themselves” (Fisher 76). To further prove how accurate and relatable this definition is, the 1993 Guinness Book of Records labeled it as the “most succinct” word in any language. Game theorists view this dilemma as a multi person version of the prisoner’s dilemma. Fisher used relatable examples to allow readers to further understand the Volunteer’s Dilemma including siblings who must choose who cleans up or has to take the garbage out. Through the introduction of the word “mamihlapinatapai” and engaging examples, Fisher helps readers understand the Volunteer’s Dilemma surrounds us, and various new social pressures.

In her essay “Three arguments against prescription requirements,” Flanigan aims to argue that self-medication should be legal, just as legal as the DIC is. While there may be instances that self-medication could pose threats to human life, I agree with Flanigan’s overall stance. Aside from the hardcore facts such as “the introduction of a prescription-only category of drugs correlated with more fatal poisonings” (Flanigan, 582), I also thought the idea of self consent when it comes to prescription drugs was compelling and valid. In the regards of medical practitioners being completely transparent and recommending certain medical treatments, patients have the right to accept or refuse the course of treatment suggested to them by their doctors. However, if there is a certain treatment that they know of, such as the diabetes example where the patient wanted to be treated with insulin, they are not  allowed to receive this treatment. If their doctor were to give them another form of treatment that they do not accept and they know of another cure, then in my opinion their self consent would be violated. Currently, a patient is completely allowed to choose their course of treatment if and only if the doctor has suggested it, even if there is an alternative they know of and would prefer.

In the first portion of the Blind reading for today, Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald discuss two implicit bias experiments that were performed in order to reveal any underlying stereotypes when it comes to gender and race. The first one titled the “Becoming Famous Overnight” experiment revealed that within society, people tend to believe that a male has more of a potential to be famous than a female. Even when the subjects were explicitly asked if they believed this, they said they did not however their results said otherwise. Another experiment that was analyzed looked into the common inferences among the relationship between the black population and weapons. The results of these trials showed that “the automatic Black = weapons association is much stronger among all groups who took the test” (105). Through both of these experiments, it was proven that there tend to be negative implicit biases placed against women and the black population. These views cause both of these groups of people to be seen as “inferior,” even in the 21st century. However, what if you belong to both of these populations? What are the personal physical and mental implications of being a black woman? There are countless studies and trials performed on just the female or colored populations, but there don’t seem to be many analyses carried out that combine the two.

According to the IAT I completed, my responses suggested “a moderate automatic association for Male with Career and Female with Family.” While I try to never categorize family or career by gender, I believe it is an implicit bias I have. According to the results of this study, 32% of people, also the majority, ended with the same result as I did. At the end of any of these tests, it is going to tell you that these implicit preferences have the potential to predict your future choices when it comes to “discrimination in hiring and promotion, medical treatment, and decisions related to criminal justice.” Based on this description, I am a little surprised that I automatically link males with career and females with family, even if it is only considered a moderate association. I would hope that in the future my results of this IAT will not come to be fully accurate as I never want to think of myself as having the ability to discriminate based upon gender.

In Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald, the idea of the “Memory Mindbugs” caused me to recall the famous Central Park Five case. First off, the research Elizabeth Loftus did regarding witness testimonies and interrogations intrigued me because of the sheer number of wrongful convictions the Innocent Project has discovered in recent years. The Innocence Project is an organization dedicated to dismissing crimes among the innocent through DNA testing, and so far 250 people have been exonerated by tests that concluded they were innocent. This means there were 250 people wrongfully convicted of a crime, and there were most likely a number of them who suffered because of human memory mindbugs.

The Central Park Five also known as the Central Park Jogger case, revolved around the rape and murder of a 28-year-old white woman, along with the attacks of 8 eight other people, in 1989. The police immediately arrested and took 14 or more suspects into custody, resulting in the prosecution of the five defendants. The trials of these five defendants, who were all African American or Hispanic American, were primarily reliant on confessions which they had made after police interrogations. They all pleaded not guilty, but the four juvenile defendants served 6–7 years each while the 16-year-old was tried and sentenced as an adult and served 13 years in an adult prison. Out of all five boys, none of them had DNA that matched DNA from the crime scene. The primary form of evidence was the confessions made during police interrogations, where I believe it could be likely that police purposely modified their vocabulary in order to get the boys to confess. When reading about the memory mindbugs and the specific car crash example where the word “hit” and “smashed” were interchanged, I immediately began to think and wonder how the police investigation of the Central Park Five utilized the memory mindbugs.