What are some real life examples of game theory?

Strategic voting. Would you switch parties in the primary to vote for the radical of the other party, thinking that person would be easier to beat in the general election?

Negotiating over anything. Particularly prices. When do you pretend to walk away. How do you tell if the person would give you more, or if you are at their bottom line?

On and on.

Interesting question. Are you referring specifically to the tragedy of the commons? In the tragedy of the commons, the entire group is best off if everyone cooperates, but each individual in the group has an incentive not to cooperate, so everyone is worse off than they could be.

One example that comes to mind is women wearing makeup. I truly believe everyone would be better off if women didn’t wear makeup. Less time and money spent; less natural resources consumed. However, if nobody wore makeup, then one person would be tempted to wear makeup to get an advantage over everyone else. Therefore, everyone wears makeup. (A simplistic example, I know; I myself wear makeup only on special occasions. But it’s an example.)

Another example: a state government deciding whether or not to ban or allow toxic air pollution from a manufacturing plant. If they ban it, everyone in the state and surrounding states (arguably, the world) is better off. If they allow it, the economy of their state benefits. If everyone banned polluting manufacturing plants, everyone would be better off… but if one state allows pollutive facilities and everyone else bans them, that state would draw all the pollutive manufacturers and the economic benefit that comes from them. Nobody wants to be the first one to block out those manufacturers, so no state bans pollutive facilities. (This explains why pollution regulation is often at the federal level.)

@xxii Yes, that’s exactly what I’m referring to. I hadn’t heard it referred to as “Tragedy of the commons”, but that’s what I’m talking about. Very nice examples. It’s one argument for having a central regulation, to force people to comply.

Peace negotiations. I found this, you might find it interesting.

This book provides a lot of other examples. I highly recommend it.

@bob_ You’re right. I hadn’t thought of anything as obvious as peace negotiations.

@Rarebear

Have you listened to Baba Brinkman’s new album yet?

The Planter’s Dilemma is all about game theory, especially as applied to Canadian tree planting crews. The refrain:
If I cheat and you don’t cheat then I profit
If you cheat and I don’t cheat then you profit
So we both cheat, so we can each keep somethin’
But where did all the non-cheaters go?
If you don’t cheat, and I don’t, the team profits
And people on teams can achieve some deep pockets
The cheats won’t beat us as long as we keep watchin’
So if you cheat, we’re gonna know

@crisw I have it—I haven’t listened to all of it yet.