Tit for Tat revised
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
How do you handle situations where you have to decide whether to cheat on people, or to kooperate and even to give something away for nothing? Do you have some kind of strategy? Are you successful at it?
To answer this question, a computer simulation has been made, testing several strategies against each other.
The setup is as follows:
Each computer simulated player has its own strategy. There is a marketplace, where each player can exchange goods by giving it to another player and, if the other decides not to cheat and keep it, getting some other good in return. For each successful exchange both get an award. At the end goods and awards are summed up to get the winning strategy.
Severall strageties have been tested, e.g.:
Cheat allways.
Loses, since nobody tries to trade with it anymore.
Trade with anybody.
Loses, cause it is cheated upon often.
Tit for Tat, means to trade only with those who proved to be not cheating at the first trade and thereafter.
Wins.
Tit for Tat revised. Like Tit for Tat, but repeatedly giving cheaters another chance after some time.
Wins even more!
What could be concluded from this is to give other people a chance and, even if they fail at the first time, to continuously give them some more chances sometime later.
To answer this question, a computer simulation has been made, testing several strategies against each other.
The setup is as follows:
Each computer simulated player has its own strategy. There is a marketplace, where each player can exchange goods by giving it to another player and, if the other decides not to cheat and keep it, getting some other good in return. For each successful exchange both get an award. At the end goods and awards are summed up to get the winning strategy.
Severall strageties have been tested, e.g.:
Cheat allways.
Loses, since nobody tries to trade with it anymore.
Trade with anybody.
Loses, cause it is cheated upon often.
Tit for Tat, means to trade only with those who proved to be not cheating at the first trade and thereafter.
Wins.
Tit for Tat revised. Like Tit for Tat, but repeatedly giving cheaters another chance after some time.
Wins even more!
What could be concluded from this is to give other people a chance and, even if they fail at the first time, to continuously give them some more chances sometime later.
