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cousin_it comments on Open Thread June 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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Ouch. In #5 I intended that the wife would lie to avoid breaking her husband's heart, not for some material benefit. So if she knew the husband didn't love her, she'd tell the truth. The fact that you automatically parsed the situation differently is... disturbing, but quite sensible by consequentialist lights, I suppose :-)
I don't understand your answer in #2. If lying incurs a small cost on you and a fraction of it on the partner, and confessing incurs a moderate cost on both, why are you uncertain?
No other visible flaws. Nice to see you bite the bullet in #3.
ETA: double ouch! In #1 you imply that happier couples should cheat more! Great stuff, I can't wait till other people reply to the questionnaire.
The husband does benefit, by her lights. The chief reason it comes out in the husband's favor in #6 is because the husband doesn't value the marital relationship and (I assumed) wouldn't value the child relationship.
You're right - in #2 telling the truth carries the risk of ending the relationship. I was considering the benefit of having a relationship with less lying (which is a benefit for both parties), but it's a gamble, and probably one which favors lying.
On eudaemonic grounds, it was an easy bullet to bite - particularly since I had read Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers, which suggested an example of such a relationship.
Incidentally, I don't accept most of this analysis, despite being a consequentialist - as I said, it is the "naive consequentialist solution", and several answers would be likely to change if (a) the questions were considered on the level of widespread strategies and (b) effects other than eudaemonic were included.
Edit: Note that "happier couples" does not imply "happier coupling" - the risk to the relationship would increase with the increased happiness from the relationship. This analysis of #1 implies instead that couples with stronger but independent social circles should cheat more (last paragraph).