Game Theory and Evolutionary Dynamics

Game theory is a tool to describe how people make decisions in a strategic context. This theory has been used to design institutions, auctions, and contracts. But it also helps us to make sense of some of the puzzling situations that we see in everyday life: Why do people donate to charities? Why do we value modesty? How can we explain the emergence of polarization? How can we describe social learning (i.e., learning from others)? And in which cases does social learning lead to optimal outcomes?

In our research group on the Dynamics of Social Behavior, we explore these kinds of questions by translating them into a formal game. Such a game needs to specify which individuals are involved in a social interaction, which decisions they can make, and how they learn to update their decisions based on their past success. To explore the resulting dynamics of these games, we use tools from mathematics (e.g., stochastic processes or dynamical systems), computer science (e.g. individual-based simulations), and the social sciences (e.g. behavioral experiments). Our research questions have a strong interdisciplinary flavor. In particular, our work has natural connections to economics (How can we design optimal institutions for cooperation?) and to psychology (Why do people value fairness?). Similarly, there are connections to biology (When would animals cooperate with each other?), and even moral philosophy (Which social norms might a society have?).