The Voters Dillemma
No matter what party people side with, whenever the presidential election is discussed, Donald Trump’s candidacy is a popular topic. Not only are people surprised that he is in the running for president, but that he has actually been so successful in running thus far. He is currently the highest polling Republican candidate in the running. There seems to be a large number of people that either like his character or are in agreement with his policies. The question on many people’s minds, however, is how did this happen. This article associates Trumps success to game theory: http://utahpolicy.com/index.php/features/today-at-utah-policy/7006-game-theory-and-politics-what-mario-kart-can-teach-us-about-2016.
The lack of agreement on who to vote for instead of Trump, puts him further ahead. In a sense it’s like a large game of the prisoners dilemma. All voters who don’t like Trump can see that he is getting ahead of the other candidates. This incentivizes these voters to take one of two options. They can either give up on their hopes of having someone besides Trump be president and just vote for him, or they can choose to cast their vote for another candidate. When voting for another candidate however, they have to decide on voting for one who’s policies best fit their beliefs or a candidate that the majority of voters would be satisfied with. It becomes a dilemma of people picking the candidate they want or settling for one that may not be what they want but isn’t trump. As the prisoners dilemma shows, people are more likely to act in of their own self interest.