Chemical Game Theory: An Approach for Modeling Strategic Decisions

Sustainability has both technical and human decision-making factors. In fields such as economics and political science, human decision-making is frequently analyzed using game theory. However, the classical model of game theory has several shortcomings. The purpose of this poster is to propose an alternative method for solving games, in which playersâ?? strategies are treated as reactant molecules and equilibrium decisions are evaluated using Gibbsian thermodynamics. We call this alternative method â??chemical game theory.â? Chemical game theory removes shortcomings of classical game theory by including entropy in the game solution and incorporating player biases, outside enforcer agents, and payoff magnitudes. This poster will focus on the Prisonerâ??s Dilemma game, a common 2x2 game used to represent Tragedy of the Commons problems. It will illustrate the distinctions between the chemical and classical solutions, and apply chemical game theory to topics of climate change, the state budget process, and the food-water-energy dilemma.