O'Hare McDonald's Monday Morning Norms

Before business school, I stopped by the McDonald's in O'hare airport many monday mornings.  It was generally a "he that shouts loudest" gets his order taken and I often likened it to standing in a commodities trading pit.  There were lines, but they were only for guidance.  Interestingly, this came to mind while reading chapter 12 of Dixit & Skeath.

Specifically, the "norms" that society imposes.  The norms at this McDonald's were definitely different than most.  At most McDonald's, it's stand in line to be served.  However, the O'Hare McDonald's was quite different.  The norm for business travelers (and for the workers) were to step up to an open register or shout to an order taker when they appeared free.  They'd happily take your order, give you a number and one would shuffle over to the side to wait.  

However, those travelers unfamiliar with this process and norm often caused confusion and delay in the system.  Those unaware would apply the norms of most McDonald's to this situation.  Often, that would mean others "cutting" in line in front of them and/or general angst amongst the others in the line.  Their perception of the norm was inaccurate and when the "cutting" did occur, they at times would take offense.  While this reaction would be the "norm" in other locations, it was not for this McDonald's.  Thus, in this one small location, the norm differed signficantly from the norm of society as a whole.  I'm reminded of how different norms across different cultures can influence behavior, but it's interesting that such a particular situation can have such a different norm.

New York WMT Trampling - can game theory explain?

book page 417 highlight

On "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, a Wal-Mart temporary employee was trampled to death after opening the store doors at 5:00am in New York.  Can game theory help explain why shoppers just continued rushing into the store, some even stepping over the man?

Psychologists have developed the term "diffusion of responsibility", which may help to explain this "insanity".  Specifically, diffusion of responsibility basically states that most coming in that morning knew the man needed help, but they figured someone else would aid the man.  Surely, if there had been just one or two shoppers, they would have stopped and helped the man up.  However, given the vast crowd, people assumed someone else would help the man.  This would allow the individuals in the crowd that didnt stop to help the chance to get great prices on DVD players and toys, and also get the benefit of someone else helping the man to his feet and thereby saving his life.  However, no one stopped to help, which is in line with the diffusion of responsibility idea -- the larger the crowd the less likely any one individual is to take action.

big 12 football title fairness

Texas football fans are upset.  They're upset for a good reason.  Texas beat Oklahoma in head-to-head play, yet it now looks like Oklahoma will play in the Big-12 championship game.  Where is the fairness?  People say "style points" matter.  Oklahoma has scored 50+ in several games and even 60+.  However, what does that really mean?  Just because you play teams with no defense, you are somehow better?  If point totals matter, you're effectively encouraging "running up the score", a practice that is frowned on by much of college football.  

The process, which due to the outcomes of numerous games, is down to the final "tie-breaker", which is the team that has the highest BCS ranking goes to the championship game.