Evolutionary Game Theory

Abstract

This chapter presents the fundamental concept of evolutionary game theory. Originally, game theory referred to a mathematical framework for the human decision-making process, containing various variants—whether a game is zero-sum (constant-sum), meaning that if one player wins the other must lose, or non-zero-sum (non-constant-sum); whether a game is symmetric, with both a focal player and an opponent sharing a common payoff structure, or asymmetric; whether a game is 2-player or multi-player; whether a game has two strategies or multiple—and so forth. In any case, classical game theory primarily concerns determining game equilibrium, or a game solution, which can be understood as a steady-state solution or a static solution in the field of conventional science and engineering. On the other hand, evolutionary game theory is rather concerned with the time-evolution of a system. This theory, as well as profound observation of the dynamical process, may allow us to solve some scientific questions—e.g., why cooperation is commonly observed in many animal species, including human beings.