This is not properly analogous to buying nukes. It’s changing the payoff matrix—the expected payoff of “cheat” becomes negative. The same mechanism where the victim must trigger massive negative utility for both parties is not present, or at least is not made present simply by a better contract. The mechanism of punishment would (almost certainly) transfer assets or rights from the cheater to the wronged partner. This would be done through a prenuptial agreement, not a marriage license; the former is a binding contract, the latter is basically just a piece of paper you need to get stamped before getting married.
This is not an unusual arrangement, as one can easily write into a prenuptial agreement an infidelity clause so that, upon divorce, the wronged partner is entitled to a greater share of community property, or to a fixed-sum payment per incident/extra partner. This means that each partner knows that cheating will give their partner a strong incentive to divorce them, and the cost of divorce will increase dramatically. One could actually specify a lot in such contracts (though not child custody); I remember hearing of a pro athlete who had a contract in his prenup such that if his wife gained more than thirty pounds, he could divorce her and she would get nothing/almost nothing—though whether the court would uphold that is anyone’s guess. The failure of people to actually use prenuptial agreements is itself a fascinating study in real human decision theory.
Certainly, what you describe is not analogous to a weapon, because of the transfer of utility. The analogy fits better in a society where either 1) adultery is a huge disgrace to the offender, possibly involving punishment (the nuke only harms one side), or 2) adultery is a huge shame to both sides (the nuke harms everyone, like in the scenario posted). Though clearly not universal, the existence of this analogy is enough for me to call it “fun” … Just in case you had any doubt, I surely do think this is a terrible view of marriage, for both societal and game theoretic reasons!
This is not properly analogous to buying nukes. It’s changing the payoff matrix—the expected payoff of “cheat” becomes negative. The same mechanism where the victim must trigger massive negative utility for both parties is not present, or at least is not made present simply by a better contract. The mechanism of punishment would (almost certainly) transfer assets or rights from the cheater to the wronged partner. This would be done through a prenuptial agreement, not a marriage license; the former is a binding contract, the latter is basically just a piece of paper you need to get stamped before getting married.
This is not an unusual arrangement, as one can easily write into a prenuptial agreement an infidelity clause so that, upon divorce, the wronged partner is entitled to a greater share of community property, or to a fixed-sum payment per incident/extra partner. This means that each partner knows that cheating will give their partner a strong incentive to divorce them, and the cost of divorce will increase dramatically. One could actually specify a lot in such contracts (though not child custody); I remember hearing of a pro athlete who had a contract in his prenup such that if his wife gained more than thirty pounds, he could divorce her and she would get nothing/almost nothing—though whether the court would uphold that is anyone’s guess. The failure of people to actually use prenuptial agreements is itself a fascinating study in real human decision theory.
Certainly, what you describe is not analogous to a weapon, because of the transfer of utility. The analogy fits better in a society where either 1) adultery is a huge disgrace to the offender, possibly involving punishment (the nuke only harms one side), or 2) adultery is a huge shame to both sides (the nuke harms everyone, like in the scenario posted). Though clearly not universal, the existence of this analogy is enough for me to call it “fun” … Just in case you had any doubt, I surely do think this is a terrible view of marriage, for both societal and game theoretic reasons!