Time Games

A time game is a model of time, action, and strategy in interdependent decision-making: A player acts at time T to affect a target player’s interests at time T+1, hence achieving a favorable outcome in the game played at time T+1. One form of time game, described by Follett (1926), is action that changes the target’s underlying interests toward mutual benefit. This paper compares eight ostensibly unrelated time games including 1. Follett’s Interest Chess; 2. Gottman’s Cool the Mark Out; 3. Ury’s Golden Bridge; 4. Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion; 5. Lax and Sebennius’s 3-D Negotiation; 6. Zartman’s Preventive Diplomacy; 7. Kelman’s Problem Solving Workshop; and 8. MacCoun’s Sword of Procedural Justice. Time games are defined by action that can affect a target’s mutable interests. Do time games vary in pro-self and pro-social motives? In ethics? Are some societal conflicts tractable only if modeled and managed as a time game?