Introducing Game Theory: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Ivan Pastine

Game theory is a set of tools used to help analyze situations where an individual’s best course of action depends on what others do or are expected to do. Game theory allows us to understand how people act in situations where they are interconnected.

In human interaction, for instance, it’s not just our decisions, but also our expressions, our tone of voice and our body language that influence others.

me, autistic, who’s generally oblivious to these things: ahah yeah totally… *takes notes*

There are well-defined rules in chess. There are a limited number of options in each move. Yet the complexity of the game is daunting even though it is much simpler than even the most basic human interaction.

author are you ok

Human behaviour is probably better approximated by bounded rationality. That is, human rationality is limited by the tractability of the decision problem (how easy it is to manage), the cognitive limitations of our minds, the time available in which to make the decision, and how important the decision is to us.

An outcome is Pareto efficient if there is no other potential outcome where somebody is better off and nobody is worse off.

One way to view environmental activism is as an effort to change the social norms. Political pressure can impose a cost on politicians who do not support environmentally friendly policies. This can change the payoffs of the nations’ policymakers, just like the moral cost of guilt changed the payoffs in the Roommate Game. Political pressure can potentially lead to a better outcome if it creates an equilibrium where countries cooperate.

It is plausible that the couple in the Battle of Sexes Game ends up with coordination failure due to misaligned expectations. In this case the game theorist would observe an “out-of-equilibrium” outcome where the couple spends the evening separated: neither of the two possible Nash equilibria come to pass.

these examples remind me so much of allistics and their rules