Simple Frequency Dependence
Simple Frequency Dependence
This chapter takes a first look at strategic interdependence, known to biologists as frequency dependent selection. It distinguishes positive interaction effects (increasing returns or synergy) from negative effects (e.g., congestion). The chapter introduces Maynard Smith’s famous Hawk‐Dove game, and goes on to show that there are only two other generic types of 2 × 2 games: dominant strategy (DS), illustrated with biological data on RNA viruses and economic examples drawn from eBay; and coordination (CO) games. Conditions for the prisoner’s dilemma are defined. The remaining sections show how these games represent edges of the state space in games with three alternative strategies. This includes data on male side‐blotched lizards that shows they play the true rock‐paper‐scissors: each edge game has a different dominant strategy, forming an intransitive loop around the 2‐dimensional simplex.
Keywords: Hawk-dove, dominant strategy, coordination, prisoner’s dilemma, intransitivity, rock-paper-scissors game
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