I spoke this morning at the 50th anniversary of the National

Conference on Citizenship. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) spoke

later, as did John Bridgeland, Executive Director of USA Freedom Corps

and advisor to President Bush. After Mr. Bridgeland spoke, someone

in the audience rose to say that he had just seen a car blatantly

stolen outside the hotel, and no one (except himself) had done anything

to try to stop it. His implication: We need to teach young people

good values, just like in the good old days. The standard politician

would take the bait and say that morals have declined, it’s a terrible

thing, but this administration is committed to character education.

John Bridgeland, however, is a thoughtful and sophisticated

guy, and he immediately recalled the game-theoretical explanation

of cases like this. For each person who witnesses the crime, the worst

outcome is that no one does anything to stop it. But the second-worst

outcome for each person is that he or she is the one who intervenes.

Chart the situation on a game-theorist’s grid, and you’ll see that

no one is likely to do anything. Mr. Bridgeland revealed that he was

thinking about game theory when he called the situation outside the

hotel a "chicken game." I found it appealing that he gave

an answer that was interesting, probably true, and that didn’t score

him any political points. (By the way, chicken games offer the most

useful advice ever generated by game theory. If you need immediate

assistance, don’t shout "help," to a crowd. Pick an individual

arbitrarily and say, "You, please help me.")