Why are many people obsessed with their fields of specialization, and the more successful they are, the more serious they become?

Why are some people sometimes lavish and sometimes extremely stingy?

Why do Indians like to eat spicy dishes?

People always think they are rational, which is also the basic assumption of traditional economic research. However, behavioral economics research shows that many human behaviors are actually irrational-which raises doubts about the credibility of game theory in the real world.

How should we understand human behavior? Is there a middle ground between the two extremes of rationality and irrationality?

Researchers Moses Hoffman and Erez Joyeri from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tried to solve this mystery. They called the area between "rational classical economics" and "irrational behavioral economics" the "hidden game." In the book named after him, Hoffman and Joyeri claim:"Many times, we think we are driven to act by emotions and preferences. In fact, what drives us are the hidden game strategies that have long been 'planted' in our genes during the long process of human evolution. For example, we talk around the bush, we are willing to help strangers, or even Stockholm syndrome."

The embryonic form of game theory can be traced back to ancient times. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described related content in the Racis and the Drinking Book. Some basic ideas about game theory were also put forward in 1663 by the Italian polymath Girolamo Cardano's "Game of Opportunity". In 1944, the book "Game Theory and Economic Behavior" co-authored by Hungarian Jewish-American mathematician and computer scientist Von Neumann and German-American economist Oscar Morgenstern was published, marking the publication of game theory as an independent discipline.

Game theory may seem profound, but it is actually not difficult to understand. Simply put, it involves "three parts" and "two assumptions". The "three parts" are the participants, the participants 'actions, and the benefits brought by the actions. The first of the "two assumptions" is that "payoffs depend on the actions chosen by all participants rather than one participant", and the second is that "participants all choose actions in the optimal way." The problem that game theory needs to solve is how to deal with the situation where the motives of all parties are intertwined.

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