The Survival Game

by David Philip Barash

"An accessible, intriguing explanation of game theory . . . that can help explain much human behavior." -Seattle Post-Intelligencer Humans, like bacteria, woodchucks, chimpanzees, and other animals, compete or cooperate in order to get food, shelter, territory, and other resources to survive. But how do they decide whether to muscle out or team up with the competition? In The Survival Game , David P. Barash synthesizes the newest ideas from psychology, economics, and biology to explore and explain the roots of human strategy. Drawing on game theory-the study of how individuals make decisions-he explores the give-and-take of spouses in determining an evening's plans, the behavior of investors in a market bubble, and the maneuvers of generals on a battlefield alongside the mating and fighting strategies of "less rational" animals. Ultimately, Barash's lively and clear examples shed light on what makes our decisions human, and what we can glean from game theory and the natural world as we negotiate and compete every day.

Genres: Science, Psychology, Economics, Evolution

324 pages, Paperback

First published December 2, 2003

About the author

David P. Barash is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, and is notable for books on Human aggression, Peace Studies, and the sexual behavior of animals and people. He has written approximately 30 books in total. He received his bachelor's degree in biology from Harpur College, Binghamton University, and a Ph.D. in zoology from University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1970. He taught at the State University of New York at Oneonta, and then accepted a permanent position at the University of Washington.

His book Natural Selections: selfish altruists, honest liars and other realities of evolution is based on articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and published in 2007 by Bellevue Literary Press. Immediately before that was Madame Bovary's Ovaries: a Darwinian look at literature, a popular but serious presentation of Darwinian literary criticism, jointly written with his daughter, Nanelle Rose Barash. He has also written over 230 scholarly articles and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, along with many other honors.

In 2008, a second edition of the textbook Peace and Conflict Studies co-authored with Charles P. Webel was published by Sage. In 2009, Columbia University Press published How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories, a book on sex differentiation co-authored with Judith Eve Lipton. This was followed in 2010 by Strange Bedfellows: the surprising connection between sex, evolution and monogamy published by Bellevue Literary Press, and, in 2011, Payback: why we retaliate, redirect aggression and seek revenge, coauthored with Judith Eve Lipton and published by Oxford University Press. His book Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary puzzles of human nature appeared in 2012, also published by Oxford University Press, and in 2013, Sage published the 3rd edition of his text, Peace and Conflict Studies.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good (non-mathematical) discussion of game theory and various classic games such as Chicken, Prisoner's Dilemma, etc. and the light they shed on strategic, adaptive behavior by humans and other animals. Fairly intelligible discussion of concepts such as Nash equilibria, and clear review of people's behavior in experiments such as the ultimatum game, in which one person controls a pot of cash and can offer any portion of it to a second -- if second accepts, they both get the stipulated amount, but if second rejects, they both get nothing. In principle, offering anything should suffice, since the second person is better off accepting the offer than refusing it and getting nothing. but in practice, cross-culturally, you have to offer at least a third or so or the offer is likely to be refused. Analysis of what such seemingly non-rational phenomena reflect comprises a lot of the book. Good read all around.

[Fredrik Österberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exceptionally dry and sometimes interesting intrduction to game theory. It could use a fair bit off editing, as Barash frequently cites
unnecessary quotes and redundant explanations.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find game theory to be fascinating. This book discusses just about every possible variation that has been evaluated. And Barash's style ofwriting always makes his books easy/fun to read.