Beyond Individual Choice

Game theory is central to modern understandings of how people deal with problems of coordination and cooperation. Yet, ironically, it cannot give a straightforward explanation of some of the simplest forms of human coordination and cooperation - most famously, that people can use the apparently arbitrary features of "focal points" to solve coordination problems, and that people sometimes cooperate in "prisoner's dilemmas." Addressing a wide readership of economists, sociologists, psychologists, and philosophers, Michael Bacharach here proposes a revision of game theory that resolves these long-standing problems. In the classical tradition of game theory, Bacharach models human beings as rational actors, but he revises the standard definition of rationality to incorporate two major new ideas. He enlarges the model of a game so that it includes the ways agents describe to themselves (or "frame") their decision problems.And he allows the possibility that people reason as members of groups (or "teams"), each taking herself to have reason to perform her component of the combination of actions that best achieves the group's common goal. Bacharach shows that certain tendencies for individuals to engage in team reasoning are consistent with recent findings in social psychology and evolutionary biology. As the culmination of Bacharach's long-standing program of pathbreaking work on the foundations of game theory, this book has been eagerly awaited. Following Bacharach's premature death, Natalie Gold and Robert Sugden edited the unfinished work and added two substantial chapters that allow the book to be read as a coherent whole.

ISBN 0691120056   Pages 240 ISBN13 9780691120058 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher The University Press Group Ltd   Weight (grammes) 485 Imprint Princeton University Press   Published in New Jersey Format Hardback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 17 Apr 2006   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2005049608   Spine width (mm) 21 DEWEY 330.015193   Academic level Professional / Scholarly, Tertiary education DEWEY edition DC22

Ch. 1		The hi-lo paradox		35
Ch. 2		Groups		69
Ch. 3		The evolution of group action		95
Ch. 4		Team thinking		120

"In this highly original book Michael Bacharach aims right at the foundations of game theory by challenging its narrow and individualistic rationality assumptions. While retaining all of the theory's analytical force, he shows how we can incorporate into it broader psychological mechanisms such as frames, social identities, and salience, producing a tool capable of biting deeper and wider into real-world social phenomena. For years to come this book will sharpen the thinking of economists. All social scientists who strive to make sense of social behavior, even those hitherto suspicious of game theory, will find it a treasure trove of inspiration." - Diego Gambetta, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford"

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