A reading guide 4 articles
Game Theory
Your result can depend on what other people choose. Game theory gives you a way to make those dependencies explicit.
A strategic situation involves more than choosing the option that looks best in isolation. Other participants have options too, and their responses can change your result. The articles here introduce the players, choices and payoffs that make up a simple game, then examine what familiar examples can and cannot tell you about an actual interaction.
Begin with the overview if the vocabulary is new. Move to the classic games to compare different arrangements of cooperation and conflict. Then distinguish a dominant strategy from Nash equilibrium: the first concerns a choice across others' actions, while the second concerns a combination of choices. When applying an example, write down what each player knows and whether the interaction repeats. A payoff table can clarify an assumption, but the numbers and motives still need to fit the situation.
Choose a starting point
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Start with strategic interaction
Identify the players and choices before trying to predict a response.
Game Theory: How Tit for Tat Won Without Beating Anyone -
Compare classic games
Look at how different payoffs and opportunities to cooperate change the problem.
Game Theory Games: 6 Classics and the Split or Steal Trick -
Understand equilibrium
Examine a combination of choices, then compare it with the separate idea of a dominant strategy.
Nash Equilibrium in Game Theory: The Penalty Kick Test
All articles
4 in this collectionDominant Strategy in Game Theory: The 1971 Cigarette Ad Ban
When TV cigarette ads were banned in 1971, tobacco profits rose. The reason was a dominant strategy. Here is how to spot one and why it can trap everyone.
Game Theory Games: 6 Classics and the Split or Steal Trick
A game show contestant got his rival to split by vowing to steal. Here are six classic game theory games, their payoff tables, and the test for equilibria.
Game Theory: How Tit for Tat Won Without Beating Anyone
Axelrod's famous tournament was won twice by the simplest strategy entered. Here is how game theory works: players, payoffs, best responses, and equilibrium.
Nash Equilibrium in Game Theory: The Penalty Kick Test
In 1,417 penalty kicks, pros mixed sides almost exactly as Nash equilibrium predicts. Here is how to find best responses and equilibria in any payoff matrix.
Before you read
Do I need advanced mathematics to start?
The introductory articles use examples and small payoff tables. Begin by identifying the participants and choices. More formal models require additional mathematics, but that is not necessary for the reading routes on this page.
Is Nash equilibrium the best result for everyone?
Not necessarily. It concerns whether a player can benefit by changing their own choice while others keep theirs. That is a different question from whether the group could reach a better outcome together.
Can I predict what a real person will do from one game?
Only with caution. Real participants may have different information, goals or expectations from those assumed in the example. Use a game to clarify those assumptions before treating its result as a prediction.