(Ebook) Game Theory and its Applications in the Social and Biological Sciences by Andrew M. Colman ISBN 9780750623698, 0750623691

(Ebook) Game Theory and its Applications in the Social and Biological Sciences by Andrew M. Colman ISBN 9780750623698, 0750623691

Andrew Coleman provides an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of mathematical gaming and other major applications in social psychology, decision theory, economics, politics, evolutionary biology, philosophy, operational research and sociology.
The primary aim of this book is to provide a critical survey of the essential ideas of game theory and the findings of experimental research on strategic interaction. In addition, I have reported some new experiments using lifelike simulations of familiar kinds of strategic interactions, and included discussions of recent applications of game theory to the study of voting, the theory of evolution, and moral philosophy. The time has (alas) long since passed when a single person could reasonably hope to be an expert on all branches of game theory or on all of its applications, and I have not attempted to achieve the impossible. But I thought it worthwhile, none the less, to aim for a fairly comprehensive coverage of important topics, with particular emphasis on those that seemed to be most relevant to naturally occurring strategic interactions.
Game theory and the experimental gaming tradition have grown up in relative isolation from each other. Game theorists, in general, remain largely oblivious of the empirical studies that have been inspired by the theory, and experimental investigators have tended to assume that the nuts and bolts of the theory do not concern them. Both parties are the losers from this divorce, and I have therefore tried to contribute towards a reconciliation by examining in detail, for the first time in a single volume, both sides of the story.