Chimpanzees: The Champions of Game Theory
Chimpanzees playing the Inspection Game
Researchers, with the hopes of discovering how each player anticipated their opponents responses, have “pitted humans against chimps in a simple two-player video game that had each player choose between left and right squares on a touchscreen panel”. Each player received some sort of reward, for chimps it was apples and for humans it was money, for guessing correct, or making the best move. Player A’s job was to match their selection with player B’s while player B was to try to avoid a match, or outwit player A. It turns out that chimps are much better at this task than humans when a simple game is involved
Chimp have an outstanding memory and are able to detect patterns a lot better than humans, including patterns that involved making choices like the ones we see in game-theories. They were able to grasp Nash Equilibrium concepts and choose the optimum choice in light of what choice their opponent may have made. Their sharp short-term memory is what allows them to be able to make the optimum decision because of their ability to catch on and remember patterns. Humans on the other hand, will more than likely think of other things that factor in, sometimes clouding their ability to find a Nash Equilibrium. The equilibrium is all about patterns and a solution that will find the optimum payoff for each player involved in a game.