Game theory shows evolution follows most successful member

Game theory has become a useful way to evaluate strategies for survival in evolution scenarios. In a new study, scientists set up a model where human players engage with each other and compete for resources, and can change their strategies for doing so in various ways. They found that as more rounds of the game were played, the human players developed a tendency to imitate the best player, causing the players as a group to tend to play the game the same way. This implies that in evolution, as one member of a species enjoys more and more success, its methods become hard to ignore for the others, which will eventually follow its lead.

Evolution is a popular application of game theory, in particular to see how trends and strategies for survival spread among a group. In this situation, survival isn’t based on an absolute indicator of fitness, but instead on evaluating how others in the same community are faring based on their actions. Because of this, it is important to figure out how certain survival strategies come to be adopted. One popular method of representing this scenario is with a situation called “the prisoner’s dilemma.”