Teaching Children Cooperation through Game Theory
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268199000724
Game theory refers to the situation that a person makes a decision based on payoffs but also the choices available for others. The game theory assumes that individual rationality: the concept of maximizing individual expected utility.
The research done by Chinn-Ping Fan studies the possibility of teaching children cooperation in a prisoner’s dilemma environment. The children are given cards with a triangle and a circle; and they are informed by the payoffs in choosing a card. The outcomes are defined as cooperative or non-cooperative pairs. Two circle cards mean the children are cooperating with each other. Two triangle cards mean the children are aggressive to each other. Pairs with a triangle and a circle have different meanings. Some of them are described as one-sided cooperative behavior. However, it can be cooperative if they were rotating the role in consecutive outcomes.
payoff table
In class, we learned that nash equilibrium for the prisoner’s dilemma is when both prisoners choose to confess. Although there is a better outcome, both choosing not to confess, under rational play of the game, this is considered impossible. The experiment done by Fan shows that both players choosing the option with the most payoff is possible. However, this is because the experiment involved variables that lead to a different outcome from the prisoner’s dilemma. Some of the possible variables are that children tend to consider less about the choices of others and they are taught by the experimenters to be cooperative with their friends. The textbook says that the Prisoner’s Dilemma only manifests itself when the conditions are right. I thought the “condition” the textbook is referring to is the payoff but the research enlightened me that there are many other factors that can affect the outcomes of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.