When your family or friend group tries to decide on a holiday activity, how do you do it without causing more stress?
Will you go to a holiday market to see the lights, or go ice skating? What about the mall, or snowshoeing? Usually, the decision is made through a show of hands, letting everybody vote for more than one activity if they want to.
How and why does this method, also known as Approval Voting, work better than our current politically divisive, brutal, single vote per person method?
Too often with a single vote, the voter has to be strategic with their precious vote – avoid wasting the vote on a spoiling “loser.” If you can only pick one, and you want outdoor activity, you might choose skating instead of snowshoeing.
If you still need a gift for Aunt Martha, the mall might work better, but you might be willing to join the fresh air folks and go to the outdoor holiday market.
With more than one vote, the voter can endorse the moderate center consensus activities and express a true preference that may not have others’ support. People can reach consensus by eliminating “extreme” alternatives.
If we eliminate others’ preferences rather than advocate for our true preferences, we get stuck with the mediocre. We don’t discover something new.
Maybe this is the holiday spirit – build consensus rather than trying to eliminate what we consider to be undesirable extremes. Use Approval Voting this holiday season.
Frank AtwoodLittleton
