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Evolutionary Game Theory

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Definition

Evolutionary Game Theory is an extension of classical Game Theory that sought to account for the properties of real-world populations of organisms and the ecosystems they inhabit, by describing the fitness-enhancing strategies maintained by the forces of evolution.

Game Theory is the study and mathematical analysis of rational decision-making, typically under conditions where there are clearly defined constraints on the information one possesses and the range of available response options. The field of Game Theory is particularly concerned with modelling the possible strategies an agent may employ when engaged in games where individual success critically depends on the choices made by other players (von Neumann and Morgenstern 1944), either because other players represent opportunities for cooperation or because they are competitive rivals for some scarce resource. Since its formal, modern inception by mathematician and polymath John von Neumann 1928 (see Tucker and Luce 1959...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, New York University-Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Tim Marsh

Authors
  1. Tim Marsh
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Correspondence to Tim Marsh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

    Glenn Scheyd

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Marsh, T. (2020). Evolutionary Game Theory. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1631

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