The Pros And Cons Of Monopoly

Most board games have a great effect on society. They are social, competitive, fun and teach us how to win and how to lose. Some games can bring out the best in people or the worst in people. Monopoly (Darrow, Charles. 1935) is a game that tends to bring out some of the worst traits in people. To win the game of Monopoly, a person must have the most money and the most properties. Often the winning player forces other players to either sell their properties off to to pay the player they owe or give their properties to the person they owe, usually the winning player. The word monopoly means: Domination of a market by a single entity (Merriam-Webster, 2003). Just the name of this game gives you a hint into its very nature. One person

They set the game up so that one player had advantages over the other. One player was given more money at the start of the game, he got more money when he passed go, he could roll both dice which got him around the board faster, to GO faster so he could collect his money quicker. The other player was given less money at the start of the game, he was given half the amount as the first player when he passed GO, and he could only roll one die, which made it take longer to get around to GO to collect his money. While the two played, they were being watched by a team of psychologists. At first the player with the larger income was slightly sympathetic towards the other player. Remarks like, ‘this isn’t fair’ were said by the wealthier player. Soon the empathy was gone, and he was whizzing around the board piling up money. Even though he was small in stature, his size seemed to increase as he spreads his arms across the table and became overly confident and boastful, even taunting the other player. His expression was cold, and he won’t even look his opponent in the eyes as he took the last of his cash. This study wasn’t just about the game Monopoly, but about how wealth, a major status symbol in America, effects human behavior. “Putting someone in a role where they’re more privileged and have more power in a game makes them behave like people who actually do have more power, more money, and more status,” says Paul Piff, the psychologist who designed the experiment (Miller, L., 2012). There are certain times when inner parts of ourselves are exposed. Games like this tend to bring out some of our worst traits because we often feel the need to dominate and win. This game gives in to those traits because the very nature of this game is to do just