Human Nature v. Game Theory: Do We Naturally Not Do What’s Best?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14199110
We are all familiar with rock paper scissors. In the game each player simultaneously chooses one of three strategies which, depending on what the other player chose, will result in either a win, loss, or tie. Neither player has a dominant strategy, however for a win/loss scenario to take place the players cannot choose the same strategy.
This study by the Proceedings of the Royal Society B is arguing that due to the fact that it is in our nature as humans to mimic each others’ physical behaviours, we are more likely to choose matching strategies and bring the game to a draw. So if truly random results are desired what is a game theorist to do? Simple, take the example of the prisoners’ dilemma; both prisoners’ are forced to decide simultaneously and are in separate locations, therefore they are incapable of allowing their subconscious minds to go through with this mimicking process. While an interesting proposal, the mimicking effect only throws off the randomness of the game slightly: the stud showed that the odds of a draw rose from 33.33% repeating to 36.66% repeating. Albeit a small difference, it is very interesting to think that our subconscious minds.