What Game Theory tells us about Donald Trump
There have already been many posts about how social networks affected the election, but surprisingly that is not the only topic we have covered that affected the candidates. It is no question that Donald Trump has a little bit of a fiery personality. But Game Theory might be able to explain the volatility of some of our future president’s behaviors. Trump has rather exceptional negotiating skills, yet is pretty easily manipulated himself; people who are nice to him and compliment him get treated well and people that criticize him get retaliation.
We have discussed prisoner’s dilemma and experiments that test what people would do in a situation where if one snitches, he goes free and the other receives a 5 year sentence, if they both snitch they get 4 years and if neither of them do they get 2 years. A game that tested this situation was called Tit for Tat- whenever the other player snitched, the first player retaliated the next round by snitching and if the other player kept quiet, he kept quiet. This year, and for the next four years, we have Tit for Trump.
Trump has made it quite clear that he will shut down anyone that speaks out against him and praise anyone that flatters him. Clearly, this method has worked quite well for Trump. The attacks on his enemies diminished his competition in the primary, as they feared the retaliation from competing with him. Every opponent that attempted to defeat Trump ended up entirely disparaged with their names and reputations more or less ruined.
Unfortunately for us, this tit-for-tat strategy that Trump uses can be manipulated. For example, Putin has already flattered him enough to scare some Americans into thinking our relationship with Russia might change. Hillary could’ve used this against him in campaigning, and did attempt to, especially during the debates where Trump ended up with his foot in his own mouth. Obviously America doesn’t mind if our next president has the personality of a Game Theory strategy; he still outsmarted a politician with much more experience and qualifications than him.