Coevolution of deception and preferences: Darwin and Nash meet Machiavelli
(2019) In Games and Economic Behavior 113. p.223-247- Abstract
- We develop a framework in which individuals' preferences coevolve with their abilities to deceive others about their preferences and intentions. Specifically, individuals are characterised by (i) a level of cognitive sophistication and (ii) a subjective utility function. Increased cognition is costly, but higher-level individuals have the advantage of being able to deceive lower-level opponents about their preferences and intentions in some of the matches. In the remaining matches, the individuals observe each other's preferences. Our main result shows that, essentially, only efficient outcomes can be stable. Moreover, under additional mild assumptions, we show that an efficient outcome is stable if and only if the gain from unilateral... (More)
- We develop a framework in which individuals' preferences coevolve with their abilities to deceive others about their preferences and intentions. Specifically, individuals are characterised by (i) a level of cognitive sophistication and (ii) a subjective utility function. Increased cognition is costly, but higher-level individuals have the advantage of being able to deceive lower-level opponents about their preferences and intentions in some of the matches. In the remaining matches, the individuals observe each other's preferences. Our main result shows that, essentially, only efficient outcomes can be stable. Moreover, under additional mild assumptions, we show that an efficient outcome is stable if and only if the gain from unilateral deviation is smaller than the effective cost of deception in the environment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/d0c65ecf-60d2-419a-9238-6a1063508826
- author
- Mohlin, Erik LU and Heller, Yuval
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Evolution of preferences, Indirect evolutionary approach, Theory of mind, Depth of reasoning, Deception, Efficiency
- in
- Games and Economic Behavior
- volume
- 113
- pages
- 223 - 247
- publisher
- 0899-8256
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85054441233
- ISSN
- 0899-8256
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.geb.2018.09.011
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d0c65ecf-60d2-419a-9238-6a1063508826
- date added to LUP
- 2018-11-06 22:51:50
- date last changed
- 2022-04-25 18:25:40
@article{d0c65ecf-60d2-419a-9238-6a1063508826,
abstract = {{We develop a framework in which individuals' preferences coevolve with their abilities to deceive others about their preferences and intentions. Specifically, individuals are characterised by (i) a level of cognitive sophistication and (ii) a subjective utility function. Increased cognition is costly, but higher-level individuals have the advantage of being able to deceive lower-level opponents about their preferences and intentions in some of the matches. In the remaining matches, the individuals observe each other's preferences. Our main result shows that, essentially, only efficient outcomes can be stable. Moreover, under additional mild assumptions, we show that an efficient outcome is stable if and only if the gain from unilateral deviation is smaller than the effective cost of deception in the environment.}},
author = {{Mohlin, Erik and Heller, Yuval}},
issn = {{0899-8256}},
keywords = {{Evolution of preferences, Indirect evolutionary approach, Theory of mind, Depth of reasoning, Deception, Efficiency}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{223--247}},
publisher = {{0899-8256}},
series = {{Games and Economic Behavior}},
title = {{Coevolution of deception and preferences: Darwin and Nash meet Machiavelli}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2018.09.011}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.geb.2018.09.011}},
volume = {{113}},
year = {{2019}},
}