Watched this fantastic video on the subject from Veritasium.
The most interesting takeaway from this is that:
The best overall strategy to take in repeated non-zero sum games
Be nice and forgiving, but not a pushover.
Prof. Axelrod, who performed the fundamental research with simulated tournaments on the Prisoner’s Dilemma, found the four specific characteristics of winning strategies:
- Nice
- Forgiving
- Retaliatory
- Clear
- Generous (To account for “noise” & subjectiveness)
There are two conditions for this strategy to work:
- Repeated trials of the Prisoner’s Dilemma
- A non-zero sum game
What kind of blew my mind was how this may also apply to relationships.
Also it got me thinking how societies and species emerge to cooperate. And how societies like Japanese society progress so much from being collectivistic.