Game Theory and the Evolution of Trust
https://ncase.me/trust/
Although this isn’t an article, it does put game theory into a more human context instead of road networks or other physical examples given in class. This website has a small interactive educational game that demonstrates game theory and the prisoner’s dilemma. As you play, it teaches you the different types of ways to play in a simple game that is outlined in game theory. For example, you can always “cheat” or always “cooperate”. But there are also other ways to play such as by copying the other player, always doing the opposite, or other, more sophisticated strategies. As you go along with the game, it also gives you context in how game theory effects how people trust other people. It pits these different strategies with varying ratios of each strategies and sees who wins in a long game of game theory. It then also introduces things like mistakes and how that’ll effect game theory. Despite the fact that I found this game a while ago, it still has stuck with me for a long time and more people should know about it as trust is vital in the world right now.
In the class, we’ve only been discussing physical examples of how game theory can affect things, however, game theory is vital in how we trust and how we communicate with people. This small interactive game demonstrates that to the fullest. For instance, in the repeated tournament stage, when three strategies (Always Cheat, Always Cooperate, and Copycat) are pitted against each other, all players playing as Always Cooperate immediately lose. This can be predicted in game theory and is why people in real life do not always cooperate or play nicely with others. In the real world, it is often times advantageous to take advantage of others. When there are players with Always Cooperate strategies, Always Cheat starts to become more prominent, because they are taking advantage of those who are cooperating, but once there is no one left to take advantage of, the Copycat strategy, or also known as “tit-for-tat”, becomes the more powerful strategy. This demonstrates the mantra of treating others as you want to be treated. This demonstrates the golden rule could be a mathematical truth rather than just a moral truth passed down from your parents to you.
When the game brings in more intricate scenarios such as less rounds or making mistakes, it shows how the Copycat strategy in game theory doesn’t work anymore. When there are less rounds, the Always Cheat wins, because being unfair in the long run won’t negatively affect you, only others. This can be seen in real life when you have less interactions with people, the less you trust them. If you repeatedly interact with others, the more you’ll trust them. This can be represented in a complex game theory scenario. Another way to tip toward the Always Cheat strategy is by changing the payoffs. When the payoffs are unfair, like in a zero-sum game, then the Always Cheat strategy also prevails. Without a fair game, trust cannot be created. Also, when there is miscommunication or mistakes made by players, this also allows Always Cheat to win. When there is a little bit of miscommunication, it is possible to forgive, however, when there’s a lot of it happening this leads to mass distrust and a whole lot of people playing with the Always Cheat strategy.
This little interactive educational game concludes that trust is difficult to maintain and that it involved a lot of things: repeat encounters, non-zero-sum games, and low miscommunication. All of this was demonstrated through the use of game theory and the different strategies that are possible to play. Although game theory may appear to just be something used for economics when deciding how much to advertise, there is way more to game theory than just that. Many of our decisions are made through the use of game theory even when we aren’t consciously aware of it. Every interaction with someone can have a winner or a loser, but it’s up to us to make sure everyone has a fair chance in order to keep our trust in others.