Learning, exploitation and bias in games

John M McNamara, Alasdair I Houston and Olof Leimar

PLOS ONE, 2021, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: We focus on learning during development in a group of individuals that play a competitive game with each other. The game has two actions and there is negative frequency dependence. We define the distribution of actions by group members to be an equilibrium configuration if no individual can improve its payoff by unilaterally changing its action. We show that at this equilibrium, one action is preferred in the sense that those taking the preferred action have a higher payoff than those taking the other, more prosocial, action. We explore the consequences of a simple ‘unbiased’ reinforcement learning rule during development, showing that groups reach an approximate equilibrium distribution, so that some achieve a higher payoff than others. Because there is learning, an individual’s behaviour can influence the future behaviour of others. We show that, as a consequence, there is the potential for an individual to exploit others by influencing them to be the ones to take the non-preferred action. Using an evolutionary simulation, we show that population members can avoid being exploited by over-valuing rewards obtained from the preferred option during learning, an example of a bias that is ‘rational’.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0246588

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246588

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