Chemical Game Theory and Cooperation in Experimental Prisoner’s Dilemma Games
Open Access
Author:
Cook, Laura Ellen
Area of Honors:
Chemical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Darrell Velegol, Thesis Supervisor Ali Borhan, Honors Advisor
Keywords:
game theory prisoner's dilemma cooperation chemical game theory chemical engineering gibbsian games entropic choices chemical physics
Abstract:
The objective of this thesis is to describe a new framework for solving game theory problems, and to analyze experimental data from the literature using this framework. The analysis will evaluate how well the framework, which we call “Chemical Game Theory” (CGT), addresses three key challenges with traditional game theory: (1) the consideration of a player’s payoffs or pains only as relative values, (2) the discrepancy between classical predictions of how “rational” players should behave and how actual players behave in experimental situations, and (3) the inability to account for a player’s pre-bias. Chemical game theory will be applied to each of these challenges, using examples such as the “epsilon problem” and selections from the literature, and the results from each will be compared to results from classical game theory. The hypothesis is that chemical game theory will address these challenges more accurately than classical game theory, potentially providing a useful new framework for games and a method for determining what players will do, instead of what they should do.