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Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic, and Human Frailty
What does game theory tell us about rational behavior? Is there such a thing as rational behavior, and if so, is it of any use to us? In this fascinating book, renowned Hungarian economist Laszlo Mero shows how game theory provides insight into such aspects of human psychology as altruism, competition, and politics, as well as its relevance to disparate fields such as physics and evolutionary biology. This ideal guide shows us how mathematics can illuminate the human condition.
287 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1998
36 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
About the author
Mérő László
28 books47 followersMérő László magyar matematikus, publicista, pszichológus, az ELTE Gazdaságpszichológiai szakcsoportjának egyetemi tanára. Elsősorban ismeretterjesztő könyveiről ismert.
1968-ban érettségizett a Berzsenyi Dániel Gimnáziumban. III. díjat nyert az 1968-ban Moszkvában megrendezett X. Nemzetközi Matematikai Diákolimpián. 1974-ben végzett az ELTE matematikus szakán. 1979-ben megszerezte a műszaki tudományok kandidátusa fokozatot.
1984-ig a SZTAKI-nál dolgozott, ahol eleinte képfeldolgozással foglalkozott, majd érdeklődése egyre inkább a mesterséges intelligencia felé fordult. Heurisztikus keresőeljárásokkal kapcsolatos eredményeit nemzetközi szaklapokban publikálta.[1]
1984-től 2005-ig az ELTE Kísérleti Pszichológia Tanszékén tanított matematikai, logikai, pszichológiai, és játékelméleti tárgyakat. Első könyve, az Észjárások 1989-ben jelent meg, ekkor indult el sikeres könyveinek sorozata itthon és külföldön is. 2000-ben habilitált a pszichológia tudományágban (pszichológiai egyetemi végzettsége nincs). 2005 óta az ELTE Gazdaságpszichológiai szakcsoportjának egyetemi tanára.
1987-ben számítógépes játékokat gyártó céget alapított, amely sikeres játékokat készített amerikai, japán és európai megrendelőknek. Több döntéselőkészítéssel és marketinggel foglalkozó cég tanácsadója.
1968-ban érettségizett a Berzsenyi Dániel Gimnáziumban. III. díjat nyert az 1968-ban Moszkvában megrendezett X. Nemzetközi Matematikai Diákolimpián. 1974-ben végzett az ELTE matematikus szakán. 1979-ben megszerezte a műszaki tudományok kandidátusa fokozatot.
1984-ig a SZTAKI-nál dolgozott, ahol eleinte képfeldolgozással foglalkozott, majd érdeklődése egyre inkább a mesterséges intelligencia felé fordult. Heurisztikus keresőeljárásokkal kapcsolatos eredményeit nemzetközi szaklapokban publikálta.[1]
1984-től 2005-ig az ELTE Kísérleti Pszichológia Tanszékén tanított matematikai, logikai, pszichológiai, és játékelméleti tárgyakat. Első könyve, az Észjárások 1989-ben jelent meg, ekkor indult el sikeres könyveinek sorozata itthon és külföldön is. 2000-ben habilitált a pszichológia tudományágban (pszichológiai egyetemi végzettsége nincs). 2005 óta az ELTE Gazdaságpszichológiai szakcsoportjának egyetemi tanára.
1987-ben számítógépes játékokat gyártó céget alapított, amely sikeres játékokat készített amerikai, japán és európai megrendelőknek. Több döntéselőkészítéssel és marketinggel foglalkozó cég tanácsadója.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 26, 2019
Started off very well. Interesting logical-mathematical concepts explained in a way that is enjoyable and educative at the same time. First half is clearly 5*. Then the main subject gradually changes into something entirely philosophical, with mind-numbing metaphors and shows a complete absense of focus. Every 10 pages or so the author reminds the readers that "... it can, somehow maybe vaguely connected to a concept similar to the predecessor of [Game Theory]" which supposed to be the main topic of the book.
February 20, 2021
I read this soon after it came out in 1998 it was one of my early forays into game theory. I have been fascinated by this bit of applied mathematics whose origins were in WWII and developed into maturity during wargaming for WWIII at places like rand but turned out to have so many applications in population biology, and social psychology, and economics. This book is a good introduction well written and enough to whet your appetite for more on this topic. I got so interested in this that I would often teach game theory to kids at my job. Good stuff.
August 7, 2022
The Dollar Auction Game In a game described by Martin Shubik a dollar bill is put up for sale. It is offered at auction with a minimum bid of one cent. Anybody who bids this much can take the dollar, provided, of course, that no one else offers more. The game proceeds according to the usual rules of auctions, but with one exception. The special rule is that the auctioneer must be paid not only by the highest bidder, but also by the second-highest bidder. The highest bidder pays what he bid and takes the dollar, while the second-highest bidder pays what he bid but gets nothing. Shubik first published an account of this game in 1971, noting that in his experience at social gatherings the dollar bill sold on average for $3.40. Shubik's profit was greater than this, since he also received the runner-up bid, and so he raked in almost seven dollars. This game has subsequently been used in several well-designed psychological experiments, with very similar results. It is worth limiting the bids to increments of ten cents, to prevent someone from spoiling the game by bidding 99 cents immediately.
Usually, however, there are three critical points in the course of the game. The first critical point is whether the game begins at all. At lively parties it almost always does. It is enough for the auctioneer to propose the game, explain the rules, and play the clown a little: "Well, doesn't anybody want to buy a dollar for one cent? All right, I have a bid of one cent. Doesn't anybody want to put in his two cents to win a dollar?" Once the first two bids have been made, the machinery proceeds under its own power.
The third critical point occurs when someone offers 100 cents for the dollar. At this point the bidder may still be under the illusion that he can escape without a loss. But his opponent knows that if he drops out of the bidding, he will be out 99 cents, while by bidding $l.01 he loses only 1 cent. But after the IOI-cent bid the opponent finds himself in a completely analogous situation: He will lose a dollar if he stops, but only two cents if he continues.
In one experiment psychologists measured the subjects' galvanic skin response, heart rate, and other measures of stress.
In the dollar auction game a greater proportion of men than women bid over a dollar.
Dollar Auctions in the Wild. No matter which animal wins the posing fight, the price of the commodity is paid by both. They have frittered away their time in posing. Thus, posing fights follow exactly the rules of the dollar auction. The player "bidding" the last second wins the goods. The other player gets nothing, but he pays essentially the same as what the winner paid. At first the dollar auction may have seemed rather artificial, but in fact, we have seen that in nature, matters sometimes proceed exactly this way.
Games like Hofstadter's can be used to model how resources, natural and otherwise, can be utilized optimally, and how mankind squanders these resources.
Situations like the one modeled in the competition occur frequently in everyday life: There exist great, "million dollar" opportunities that vanish as soon as everyone tries to take advantage of them. If there are only a few taxis in a city, then a few taxi drivers might become very rich in no time at all, but if everybody becomes a taxi driver, then no one will be able to make a decent living driving a cab. In such a case the city authorities may enter the fray and issue a limited number of taxi permits.
hailed as a hero who has saved mankind
It seems that a perfectly rational individual can never make a decision-that such an ability is vouchsafed only to those of limited rationality.
This may sound strange, but it is merely vacuously true to assert that every one of the zero witches that exist rides on a broomstick.
Usually, however, there are three critical points in the course of the game. The first critical point is whether the game begins at all. At lively parties it almost always does. It is enough for the auctioneer to propose the game, explain the rules, and play the clown a little: "Well, doesn't anybody want to buy a dollar for one cent? All right, I have a bid of one cent. Doesn't anybody want to put in his two cents to win a dollar?" Once the first two bids have been made, the machinery proceeds under its own power.
The third critical point occurs when someone offers 100 cents for the dollar. At this point the bidder may still be under the illusion that he can escape without a loss. But his opponent knows that if he drops out of the bidding, he will be out 99 cents, while by bidding $l.01 he loses only 1 cent. But after the IOI-cent bid the opponent finds himself in a completely analogous situation: He will lose a dollar if he stops, but only two cents if he continues.
In one experiment psychologists measured the subjects' galvanic skin response, heart rate, and other measures of stress.
In the dollar auction game a greater proportion of men than women bid over a dollar.
Dollar Auctions in the Wild. No matter which animal wins the posing fight, the price of the commodity is paid by both. They have frittered away their time in posing. Thus, posing fights follow exactly the rules of the dollar auction. The player "bidding" the last second wins the goods. The other player gets nothing, but he pays essentially the same as what the winner paid. At first the dollar auction may have seemed rather artificial, but in fact, we have seen that in nature, matters sometimes proceed exactly this way.
Games like Hofstadter's can be used to model how resources, natural and otherwise, can be utilized optimally, and how mankind squanders these resources.
Situations like the one modeled in the competition occur frequently in everyday life: There exist great, "million dollar" opportunities that vanish as soon as everyone tries to take advantage of them. If there are only a few taxis in a city, then a few taxi drivers might become very rich in no time at all, but if everybody becomes a taxi driver, then no one will be able to make a decent living driving a cab. In such a case the city authorities may enter the fray and issue a limited number of taxi permits.
hailed as a hero who has saved mankind
It seems that a perfectly rational individual can never make a decision-that such an ability is vouchsafed only to those of limited rationality.
This may sound strange, but it is merely vacuously true to assert that every one of the zero witches that exist rides on a broomstick.
July 14, 2024
Fino al decimo capitolo o giù di lì, era un saggio che stavo adorando sulla teoria dei giochi, trattata in maniera divulgativa ma rigorosa; poi purtroppo ho trovato i collegamenti dell'autore alle altre discipline trattate (evoluzione, economia, meccanica quantistica, psicologia, mistica) sempre più deboli e speculativi, oltre che viziati dal fatto che questo libro è vecchio di almeno venticinque anni; e in particolare l'analogia tra la meccanica quantistica e la teoria dei giochi, e il fatto che secondo l'autore la mente "segue le leggi quantistiche", semplicemente sulla base di un'analogia intuitiva, mi ha fatto desiderare di finirlo il prima possibile per togliermelo dalle palle. Fortunatamente nel finale si torna a parlare dei giochi dei primi capitoli, e quindi mi ha fatto ricordare che gli argomenti primari del libro (l'asta del dollaro, il gioco del milione di dollari, il dilemma del prigioniero, il teorema di Von Neumann) sono così fighi e interessanti che alla fine il libro si merita quattro stelle. Peccato davvero per questa parentesi, che mi ha irritato forse più del dovuto.
March 2, 2013
Excellent book to address decision making process when moral values are on the table. From the Game Theory to the bluff aspects, the book discusses the human fragility in the decision making process.
Livro Excelente para abordar o processo de tomada de decisões quando valores morais estão na mesa. Da Teoria dos Jogos aos aspectos do blefe, o livro discute a fragilidade humana no processo de tomada de decisões.
Livro Excelente para abordar o processo de tomada de decisões quando valores morais estão na mesa. Da Teoria dos Jogos aos aspectos do blefe, o livro discute a fragilidade humana no processo de tomada de decisões.
January 21, 2019
My rating is generous. Three and a half is accurate. The author keeps the math simple, which I am ambivalent about. He introduces some games like the dollar auction and the prisoner's dilemma and does a von Neumann-for-dummies analysis. He then goes on to explain the value of mixed strategies, which he advocates, but in the end it looks like random decision making. So I found the reading interesting, but I wasn't led to any conclusions.
January 15, 2011
Very original. Fun to read. Toward the end it stresses it's ideas a bit, so I cannot give it 5 stars. Still one of the most inspiring book I ever read.
August 18, 2020
This book just lacks a point, though admittedly he is describing everything in a very layman friendly way
January 14, 2026
Needed some game theory as bait to hook me into reading a psychology/philosophy book.
August 5, 2010
This book gives a fantastic look at rationality in games. Mero, without the crutch of mathematics, gives the reader an intuitive understanding of games, their solutions, and their limits. A joy to read.
February 9, 2013
I wanted to like this book. Game theory, morality and evolution? Yes, please! But the author's weird forays into group selectionism and weird moral theories were annoying. It's like someone took a great idea, and demolished it. I grieve for the book that could have been.
February 5, 2014
Super interesting, but clearly meant for someone much more intelligent than me!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews