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arXiv · 2005.05779

Instability of Defection in the Prisoner's Dilemma Under Best Experienced Payoff Dynamics

Srinivas Arigapudi·Yuval Heller·Igal Milchtaich
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Abstract

We study population dynamics under which each revising agent tests each strategy k times, with each trial being against a newly drawn opponent, and chooses the strategy whose mean payoff was highest. When k = 1, defection is globally stable in the prisoner`s dilemma. By contrast, when k > 1 we show that there exists a globally stable state in which agents cooperate with probability between 28% and 50%. Next, we characterize stability of strict equilibria in general games. Our results demonstrate that the empirically plausible case of k > 1 can yield qualitatively different predictions than the case of k = 1 that is commonly studied in the literature.

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BibTeXRIS

Srinivas Arigapudi, Yuval Heller, Igal Milchtaich. 2020-05-12. Instability of Defection in the Prisoner's Dilemma Under Best Experienced Payoff Dynamics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.05779

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