Living Game Theory
Recently in class we learned about Game Theory. Professor Peter Nonacs at UCLA has brought the concept of Game Theory to life, literally. Rather than teaching the theory solely out of a book, he decided to let his students experience it first hand. How you might ask? By letting them cheat on a test.
First, Professor Nonacs informed his students that he would be giving them an extremely hard–“near impossible”–exam on the concept of Game Theory. However, to make up for this he would allow them to cheat in any and every (legal) way. They were allowed to offer bribes to Nonacs, use their cellphones, talk to each other,etc. After the initial shock disappeared the students were on-board and accepted the idea.
Come test time, Nonacs gives only one question on the test, “If evolution through natural selection is a game, what are the players, teams, rules, objectives, and outcomes?”. All (but three) of the 27 students decided to share answers and collectively turned in the test. From this, the class already learned a main principle of game theory. Like the prisoner’s dilemma, for the majority to get a better payoff, cooperation was key.
This article fascinated me even further when the data from this experiment proved what was expected. The class (24 out of the 27 students) scored 20% higher than the averages on Nonacs previous normal tests. And out of the three students who decided to take the test alone, one got a higher grade than the class, one had the same grade, and the other had scored lower. Thus proving that cooperation is generally the best option.