Partisans on each side will claim some vast conspiracy in the debt ceiling debate - Republicans are bought by corporations and hate poor people because they want to lower their taxes, Democrats are bought by unions and hate poor people because they want to give them stuff for free - but it may be simpler than that. Cooperation is in our nature but morality can undercut the tendency, writes Jason Castro in Scientific American, and game theory can tell us some things about why - at least academically.
If you're a Science 2.0 reader there are two things you know; economists know nothing about economics and neuroscientists know little about how people actually think. In models and simulations, it's all balloons and ponies but we're really still in the Dark Ages when it comes to understanding why people do what they do.
Game theory is a different animal because it isn't trying to predict individual action (see Game Theory - The Art Of Acting Rational) it's more about probability. If you are a member of Congress, you are trying to calculate what you want but also the strategies of everyone else. Basically, it' an elaborate game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Want to beat it? Here's how.
