Is there any real world usage of game theory for ordinary people?
It's relevant in every day life: human interaction often fits the schema of the prisoner's dilemma, the signalling game or the chicken game. That tit-for-tat is the optimal strategy in iterated prisoner's dilemmata matches intuition about human cooperation.
The theory is beautiful, easy to understand and leads to verifiable predictions, especially in the context of evolution, such as the competition between genes, the behaviour of parasites, allocation of resources in a tribe, mating rituals, etc.
It certainly doesn't match my intuition because it's a quite mechanistic view of things. But speaking in mathematical terms, I have the suspicion that it's a solution for a very specific situation that generalizes with negative side-effects to social life. In any case, I've read that governments use this strategy when it comes to foreign affairs.
The idea is, that of course, in real life people are not 100% uniform, miscommunication and misunderstanding happens, etc. And you'll want to tune your parameters to the situation at hand. E.g. if you have a long standing relationship with the other actor and they've always been cooperating then you may not want to compete/retort when you see then doing it for the first time. (OTOH, what I personally found important is that in a new relationship, you should be very strict about this. Even if not immediately compete, shoot a very directed and serious warning.)
The general idea is that you don't let the other party to take advantage of you in the long run , but you always allow for de-escalation and don't try to take advantage of them in the long run either. (You will get taken advantage of, of course, because you'll always start cooperating, so if every other actor/player is competing then you'll lose on average. But not by much. However, if there are just a few one who are willing to cooperate most of the time, then you'll win big time.)
E.g. if you implement tit-for-tat in your marriage, you're gonna have a bad time.
Most people have a very simple view of the nature of politics, and therefore, tend to think the people charge are out to get them in some way, when really, they're just operating under some kind of game that forces their hand to make difficult decisions. By understanding a little game theory, a person might at least be able to better understand what's going on, if not even influence the odds in their favor.
Obviously, ordinary people might not want to play this game, but the game will still play with you.
This video is a good rundown of that for government, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
One analogy is shifting from a blame culture — why did that one person do that thing? — to a blameless postmortem: what is it about this system of individual actions that leads to this outcome? How did we get here? What mechanisms and incentives would repeat it? What would change it?
But caution: game theory is not about winning games, but finding equilibria. You might be more interested in behavioral game theory (how people learn the games, k-level thinking etc) if you want to get a leg up.
This. However, if you understand the equilibrium for some behaviour, you can understand what would it take to change the behaviour.
I use this in my startup where we create an equilibrium for dentists to provide reliable dental care. And, it actually works.
For a great introduction from this point of view, check out Thomas Schelling's Strategy of Conflict. No maths, just a great read from a Nobel prize winner.
https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2016/09/09/mutually-assur...
It's like a lot of things, you need to know enough to know why its useful, so its a bit of a catch-22. And then there's when you should apply it - a lot of the times just because you can doesn't mean you should.
are you asking "would an ordinary person encounter events in which game theory would be applicable on a normal, day-to-day basis?"
or are you asking "would an ordinary person who has studied game theory (but is not especially well versed or practiced) be capable of using it when it comes to making decisions?"
also can you please specify what you mean by an "ordinary person". how good are they at linear algebra and probability?
And assume they are good at maths.
Something you'd describe as being ordinary.
Though, I could be very wrong here, since it is definitely open for multiple interpretations.
Is there a shortage of groceries? Are people hoarding? Are they just 'bad people' or does a rational person change what they buy during a shortage? Why? Would you expect a Government saying "don't hoard" to have any effect?
> playing a musical instrument
Is there an orchestra you want to join? Will a particular instrument get you in the door easier than any other instrument?
> sport
Soccer. Why do you see so many obvious dives in professional soccer? Why do grown men hold their shins and cry when the replay shows they weren't hit?
Sumo. When a sumo wrestler is one win away from a promotion in a tournament, and he's facing an opponent who has already guaranteed his own promotion, what are the odds the first sumo wrestler will win?