Testosterone and the Hawk and Dove Game
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0018506X16301775
In class we learned about the Hawk-Dove game, where multiple Nash equilibria arise. The story of the game is that two animals are in a competition for food and their behavior decides how the piece of food will be divided between them. If the animals both act aggressively, like a hawk, then both their payoffs equal zero as the destroy the food in the process. If one animal has hawk behavior/ aggressive behavior and one animal has passive/ dove behavior, then the hawk has a payoff of 5 and the dove has a payoff of 1. If both animals behave passively, they both have an equal payoff of 3 and divide the food evenly. In this example, the Nash equilibria are (D, H) and (H, D) [6.6 Mixed Equilibria: the Hawk-Dove Game].
In the study linked above, 42 undergrads at UT Austin were selected to played the hawk-dove game with the chance to take home their earnings from the game. Each day, the participants testosterone and cortisol levels were tested before playing. Just as we learned in class, the participants were aware of the payoff they would receive based on their decision and the other player’s decision, but the participant did not know what strategy the other person would choose.
The results of the study revealed that higher levels of testosterone were associated with more hawk decisions, or decisions that harmed the other player. These findings suggest that interactions between two or more high-testosterone members increases the likelihood of status confrontations that can harm outcomes. This study utilizes the hawk-dove game to analyze the way hormones impacts human behavior, and proves the plethora of applications that game theory has in real life.