Coordination Problems: What It Takes to Change the World
The key to major changes on a societal level is getting enough people to alter their behavior at the same time. It’s not enough for isolated individuals to act. Here’s what we can learn from …
Game Theory
Prisoner’s Dilemma: What Game Are you Playing?
In this classic game theory experiment, you must decide: rat out another for personal benefit, or cooperate? The answer may be more complicated than you think. *** What does it take to make people …
Books Everyone Should Read on Psychology and Behavioral Economics
Earlier this year, a prominent friend of mine was tasked with coming up with a list of behavioral economics book recommendations for the military leaders of a G7 country and I was on the limited email …
Opinions and Organizational Theory
When I think about the world in which we live and the organizations in which we work, I can’t help but think that few people have the intellectual honesty, time, and discipline required to hold a …
Gaming the System
Some college students used game theory to get an A by exploiting a loophole in the grading curve. Catherine Rampell explains: In several computer science courses at Johns Hopkins University, the …
Mental Model: Game Theory
From Game Theory, by Morton Davis: The theory of games is a theory of decision making. It considers how one should make decisions and to a lesser extent, how one does make them. You make a number of …
The Red Queen Effect: Avoid Running Faster to Stay in the Same Place
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was not only an author but a keen observer of human nature. His most famous works are Alice’s Adventures in …
The Great Ideas of the Social Sciences
What are the most important ideas ever put forward in social science? I’m not asking what are the best ideas, so the truth of them is only obliquely relevant: a very important idea may be largely …
Mental Model: Prisoners’ Dilemma
The prisoners’ dilemma is the best known strategy game in social science. The game shows why two entities might not cooperate even when it appears in their best (rational) interest to do so. …
The Tragedy Of The Commons
What is common to many is taken least care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than for what they possess in common with others. — Aristotle The rules pay you to do the wrong …
The Colonel Blotto Game: How Underdogs Can Win
If you’ve ever wondered why underdogs win or how to improve your odds of winning when you’re the underdog, this article on The Colonel Blotto Game is for you. *** There is a rich tradition …
Social Dilemmas: When to Defect and When to Cooperate
Social dilemmas arise when an individual receives a higher payoff for defecting than cooperating when everyone else cooperates. When everyone defects they are worse off. That is, each member has a …