Game Theory vs. The Holy Spirit - Why so many Christians are free-riders

Part 1
Game Theory is one of the best mind-sharpening classes I've taken. It's changed how I think about negotiating, responses, cooperation, and behavior.

One example of applied Game Theory comes in the analysis of the murder of Kitty Genovese.Genovese was murdered very publicly over a period of 30 minutes in a crowded area in Queens, NY.
Psychologists and sociologists studied why no one came to her aid. They termed the problem the "Bystander Effect," created by "pluralistic ignorance." They reason that everyone assumes someone else is going to do something, creating a "diffusion of responsibility." No one coordinates to provide help because they are ignorant of what the other bystanders are thinking.

This is where economists can come in (with assumptions that people behave rationally) and apply some Game Theory along with some calculus to prove this hypothesis: The larger the crowd, the less likely someone is to help another person. (I'll not reprint the textbook calculations that bears this out).

Everyone free-rides. A person gets pleasure in seeing someone get helped, but the pleasure they get is lessened if they have to pay a price to help them themselves. Genovese's would-be savior would have had to take the time to call the police, testify in court later, etc. etc. So, everyone waited for someone else to pay that price so they could free-ride off of it. It's rational , self-interested behavior that led to a suboptimal outcome

So, what about Christians? Do we behave rationally and make the same calculations? Very clearly.

Tithing is a clear example. In what size church would you expect someone to be the most faithful with their tithes and offerings: A church of 10, or a church of 10,000? If you walk into a church of 10,000 people you think: "There are already plenty of people here that are going to give to support the ministry. The marginal cost to the church if I don't give anything is practically zero."

Barna reports that only 8% of professing evangelicals tithe. What are the other 92% doing? Free-riding. This is rational behavior.

The other type of free-riding is seen in evangelism. All of us get a benefit by seeing someone repent and be baptised and by seeing our churches grow. But, like the Genovese example, we don't want to diminish our benefit by paying a cost ourselves. So, we let others pay the cost. Hey, I'm very often guilty of this one.
Barna states that in 2003, about 60% of born-again believers shared their faith with a non-believer at least once. (People who evangelize are also more likely to pay a tithe, according to Barna).

I don't know how many shared more than once a year. (Sharing once a year isn't going to yield a very high multiplication rate. Imagine if 60% of Americans tried to reproduce once a year every year. Our population would decline). Many likely shared more or with large groups. But, 40% of the born-again population is still free-riding.

It's rational behavior that leads to a sub-optimal outcome. Game Theory has an answer for this in its study of "collective-action games." The goal is to coordinate with your neighbor: "If you help, I'll help too, and our payoffs will be greater than if one of us did it alone. " Indeed, it depends on the payoffs.

So, how do you do it, how do you coordinate in interactions (games) like this? Assuming you only have 2 people:
1. If it's a repeated game (like most of life), then there needs to be some form of punishment in the future to coerce the free-rider (cheater) to start giving. Or the promise of a reward. It has to be a credible promise like "If you give, then I will give too," and you punish the other person if he does not. However, the threat isn't really credible in the tithing case (hard to illustrate here without drawing a payoff table). If the other person gives, then the promiser now has an incentive to cheat and not give.

2. Illustrate that the benefit is maximized if both players fully participate. Depends on the payoffs, though. You can argue that the more people become saved the better all of society is. The only way to maximize the number of people converted is to both participate. So, making those payoffs clear might help.

Now, I've very crudely turned Christian church life into a "game" and that makes non-economists very uncomfortable.

Why should we tithe and why should we share the Gospel when the rational choice is to free-ride? Because we've been crucified with Christ and it's no longer us that live, but Christ who lives within us. God gave His only begotten son. "We're never more like God than when we give." - (Dave Ramsey). By faith, Abraham gave 10% of his increase to Melchizidek. The only place in the Bible that God tells us to test him is in the area of tithing: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." - Malachi 3:10.

So, why do so many professing Christians free-ride and do neither? Because they're making a purely rational choice rather than a spiritual one.