Darkly dreaming Dexter inside economics

Anybody who has seen Dexter, the popular American television series will agree to a simple fact that whatever the bloodstain pattern analyst does is for the betterment of the entire society. He is a killer who kills serial killers. Utilitarians are people who do not hesitate to sacrifice an individual for the betterment of a group. Dexter Morgan is a classic case.

Pravin Palande
Updated: Jan 31, 2012 12:31:30 AM UTC

Anybody who has seen Dexter, the popular American television series, will agree to a simple fact that whatever the bloodstain pattern analyst does, it is for the betterment of the entire society. He is a killer who kills serial killers. Utilitarians are people who do not hesitate to sacrifice an individual for the betterment of a group. Dexter Morgan is a classic case. He works with the police force and goes after serial killers who have escaped the law. Most people who watch the TV serial are confused about Dexter’s method of delivering justice. After all, he goes in for the kill. Is killing a good thing so that the entire society can live in peace?

The answers are not easy. Michael Sandel, an American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University who is very popular for his course on Justice loves to make his class uncomfortable by asking questions where the students have to make a moral choice. He takes you in and out of Dexter like situations and by the time students are done with his lectures they are in a very uncomfortable position. They are probably better off watching Dexter than deal with these questions themselves. Sandel’s lectures take the students through a series of cases where the high point deals with cannibalism. http://www.justiceharvard.org/

Two researchers, Bartels (ColumbiaUniversity) and Pizarro (CornellUniversity) who have recently published a paper to understand utilitarians have answered the questions that have troubled the viewers of Dexter as well as the students of Sandel. You can get their entire paper here: http://leeds-faculty.colorado.edu/mcgrawp/PDF/BartelsPizarro.2011.pdf

The Economist carried an article about their research in its September 24th issue: It had the classic runaway carriage example:

One of the classic techniques used to measure a person’s willingness to behave in a utilitarian way is known as trolleyology. The subject of the study is challenged with thought experiments involving a runaway railway trolley or train carriage. All involve choices, each of which leads to people’s deaths. For example: there are five railway workmen in the path of a runaway carriage. The men will surely be killed unless the subject of the experiment, a bystander in the story, does something. The subject is told he is on a bridge over the tracks. Next to him is a big, heavy stranger. The subject is informed that his own body would be too light to stop the train, but that if he pushes the stranger onto the tracks, the stranger’s large body will stop the train and save the five lives. That, unfortunately, would kill the stranger.

These researchers have concluded that utilitarians are psychotic and love violence. They feel that life is meaningless and do not have much interest in the finer things in life.

Generally only 10% of the people agree with the utilitarian approach. That is 90% of the people do not want to kill the fat man. The article further argues that  utilitarians might end up adding to the sum of human happiness even if they have a miserable view of life.

If not anything, these two researchers have proved Dexter right. Even if he has a different and violent view about life he simply adds to the happiness quotient of Miami. Had Dexter taken the above quiz, there was a complete chance that he may not kill the fat man for the simple reason that he is not a serial killer. On the other hand, if this event was happening in Miami, Dexter would just hope and pray that at least one of the workers on the runaway is a serial killer.

Lets take this to the financial markets. Utililitarian’s are psychopathic. Recent studies, especially after the meltdown in financial markets have argued that markets are irrational because investors are irrational. Behavioral finance is an upcoming field that is expected to answer questions about the animal spirits of investors and irrationality in financial markets. As of now the field has not been able to come out with a model. All it argues is that the existing models of market efficiency are flawed. Eventually, behavioral finance will come out with a model that will be totally based on the utilitarian theory of choice. Fund managers may just not make it to the mark. After all, utilitarians might be dark and depressed personalities but they would have at the end of the day thought about the betterment of the society or in this case returns to the investors. In most cases, fund managers make money for themselves.

 

And now this is for those who have recalled the title sequence of Dexter after an overdose of utilitarian philosophy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej8-Rqo-VT4 [/youtube]

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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