# s-game: #POTUS race turned into a game theory experiment ...

<< Zollman [Kevin  Zollman, Carnegie  Mellon University] notes being among the first to endorse a candidate who is best positioned  to  win  has its  advantages.  “You  get more credibility,”  he  said.  “I  want to  endorse  early  so  I can say, ‘I was there first’  —  the political  version  of  being  a hipster.” >>

<< That’s  what game theorists call  “costly  signaling,”  a  concession  an  individual makes to indicate greater  strength. Academics  have  theorized  that  the  sharing  of food  in  hunter-gatherer  societies  might  not  be  primarily  altruistic,  but  rather  a chance for the best hunters to show off their skills,  and  thereby  move up in the reproductive  pecking  order. >>

<< But  that  was  before  the  2016 race turned into a game theory experiment, where true feelings are set aside for the purpose of a single  mathematical  result. >>

Andrew McGill. The Anti-Trump Endorsement Game. The mathematical strategy behind endorsing Ted Cruz, as explained by game theory. The  Atlantic. March 25, 2016

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/trump-cruz-kasich-endorsement/475230/ 

<< (..) another  turn  of  the  cards  in  a  game  that  refuses  to  conform  to  old  rules.  The winner  will  be  the  candidate  who  figures  out  the  new  ones. >>

Andrew  McGill. The Game  Theory  Principles  Behind  a  Political Endorsement  Against  Trump. The  Atlantic. March  27,  2016.

http://m.govexec.com/oversight/on-politics/2016/03/game-theory-principles-behind-political-endorsement-against-trump/126971/