Group 4: Game Theory and Adam Smith

In his book, Game Theory Evolving, Herbert Gintis illustrates the importance of game theory, believing it helps us “ understand the stunning interplay of cooperation and conflict that accounts for the strengths (and weaknesses) of the market economy and our strengths (and weaknesses) as a species” (xxii). By developing mathematical models, game theory predicts outcomes of human interactions. Adam Smith’s theories of human behavior, described in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, can be confirmed with game theoretic models, which justify sympathy as a dominate human trait and explain how altruism can serve one’s self interest.