In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through separation and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision-making: Trick

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through separations and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision making:

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through separations and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision making:

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce.  We next focused on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns of decision

In prior articles, we wrote about the natural desire to prevail against perceived rivals and the potential use of game theory to understand obstacles in the current legal system as it takes families through parental separations and divorce.  We next began to focus on how the legal system begins to trick people into self-defeating patterns

“The other side wants . . .!”  In prior blogs we focused on the fact that while people are rational, they can be tricked and on two of the tricks in the traditional family law legal system: legal outcomes are goals; and divorce is a zero sum game.  The third trick is convincing people that

“What custody schedule do you want?” In a prior blog, we noted that this is a trick question because it distracts people from their life goals and focuses them on legal outcomes, as though they are goals.  It is also a trick question because it reframes a non-zero sum game into a zero sum game.

Why do we like to win, whether it is a tennis match or an argument with our spouse?  Natural selection favored those who survived and reproduced.  One of the ways that humans survived, and thus were able to reproduce, was to prevail.  Prevailing meant finding food, warding off predators and winning battles over resources with