Cooperation

http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2006/06/cooperation_without_cognition_1.php

So this guy wrote about a simulation that a few guys ran to model cooperation without cognition. In one of our first classes we played the investment game and we found that the optimal individual strategy was to not invest. What they show is that even though cooperation doesn't occur in public goods games, if groups are put together properly, cooperation can manifest itself. They say this is how we see cooperation in the world; because we interact with subgroups. The biggest discovery of the study was that you don't need to be able to differentiate between people like yourself to obtain cooperation, it all just falls into place.

The other day during lecture in Intro to Micro, we learned about game theory and how it is used to predict the actions of firms. The key to the prisoner's dilemma is that there is a lack of cooperation between the prisoners, and comparing that to the economy, between the firms. That game is also only played once. We discovered that if the game is played over and over, the firms may end up cooperating and may start moving toward a social optimum.

However, in a different class, we played a game called "Win As Much As You Can," during which we were divided into teams and had to decide on strategies without conversing with the other teams. We repeated this discussion within teams and a decision 10 times. Twice during those 10 times, a representative from each time joined in the center to discuss with the other teams. Even though we all agreed on a certain strategy, when it came time to decide, a few teams always contradicted what we had decided. This represents the rational thinking of furthering one's own personal interests and that even after discussion with competitors, the personal interests always win in the end.