This article will talk about the basic theory of game theory and the most suitable strategy for ways fo us to interact with one another

So now, if you were player 1, what would you do? It’s in your best interest to steal if you don’t know what the other person is going to do, yet if the other player thinks the same way as you, you both get the worst possible outcome by receiving nothing. This is called a Nash Equilibrium, an essential concept in the realm of Game Theory. It is when the “game reaches a state that gives individual players no incentive to deviate from their initial strategy. The players know their opponents' strategy and can't deviate from their chosen strategy because it remains optimal.” (Chen, 2025). As such, the players now remain stuck and can’t improve their situation unless other people are willing to do the same, in other words, taking a leap of faith. By making your situation worse currently, and if the other does the same, paradoxically, you both end up in a better position than you started with.

This is because Game Theory is not a zero-sum game unless other aspects of life, like sports. Sports like football will always have good and bad teams because a win for one team necessitates another team to lose, meaning glory for one causes heartbreak for another. In Game theory, however, depending on the actions of players and the trust they have the game could be zero-sum, negative, or positive. Meaning that if the players were to meet repeatedly, they would be encouraged to do what's good for everyone rather than what is best for themselves.

As such one may logically ask, what is the optimal or dominant strategy that one should use if they were to be in a game theory-like situation? In a 2-player game, the strategy that should be used is called tit-for-tat (TFT). 

This concept has been proven again and again to be the best possible strategy for any player to take, first proven back in 1979 by Robert Axelrod in a round robin game where each strategy would go against other strategies in repeated interactions, where each character has 2 options: to cooperate or to defect. This win in 1979, and a second win in 1980 despite everyone else knowing this strategy, shows how powerful this strategy can be in daily life.

The way TFT works is that it first cooperates (splits) with the other player, then after every move it copies it’s opponents previous move. Amazingly, this means that at best, it can only tie an opponent and never win. Yet with enough interactions, it grabs roughly 45-47% of all available points, by far the best out of any strategy. This helped elevate the belief that co-operation is beneficial to all, and defection is harmful to all, a stark contrast to the I-win-you-lose (zero-sum) mentality preceding this. 

Game theory has now grown into a vast field with its impact reaching many places, such as economics, math, and public infrastructure, among many others. But the key thing to remember is that the dominant strategy in life is to treat everyone nicely, give them the benefit of the doubt. Yet, if they cross you, don’t cut them off, be firm with them but forgive them, and although you’ll be a net-giver in most relationships, those will be more fair and more pleasant than any other way of going about life.