Strategic Applications The History and Utility of Game Theory in the Social sciences
Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Fitzgerald, Keith
Keywords
Rational Choice Theory, Game Theory, Heuristic(s), Decision Making, Political Psychology
Area of Concentration
Psychology
Abstract
Beginning with The Theory of Economic Games and Behavior by John Von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern (1944), a theory based on the maximization of payoffs was applied to models of rational choice and used to explain how people make their daily decisions. Many political scientists were eager to include empiricism in political science and applied rational choice theory to voting, revolutionary activity, the coercive power of leaders, trade, and nearly every other aspect of political science. This ultimately unsuccessful revolution met with scrutinous debunkers (e.g., Green and Shapiro, 1994; March and Olsen, 1984). Meanwhile, cognitive psychologists (e.g., Kahneman & Tversky, 1972, 1974, 1982) were attempting to determine the cognitive processes that occur during decisionmaking. The notion of invariance, consistency of choices, was researched and ultimately contested by findings. In an original study presented here, 174 undergraduate students with varying types of tutelage in rational choice theory/game theory, framing, and/or heuristics decided among various alternatives originally presented to participants by Kahneman and Tversky in 1981 and 1988. Experience with rational choice theory and heuristics had no effect on consistency in decision-making. Neither did area of major nor year in college. All subjects were inconsistent. This inconsistency in decisions between choices with mathematically equivalent outcomes supports other findings that human decision-making is generally variant.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Michael A., "Strategic Applications The History and Utility of Game Theory in the Social sciences" (2004). Theses & ETDs. 3403.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/3403
Rights
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