The early rise and spread of evolutionary game theory: perspectives based on recollections of early workers

Grodwohl, Jean-Baptiste and Parker, Geoff AA ORCID: 0000-0003-4795-6352 (2023) The early rise and spread of evolutionary game theory: perspectives based on recollections of early workers. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 378 (1876). 20210493-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0493

Abstract

Though the first attempts to introduce game theory into evolutionary biology failed, new formalism by Maynard Smith and Price in 1973 had almost instant success. We use information supplied by early workers to analyse how and why evolutionary game theory (EGT) spread so rapidly in its earliest years. EGT was a major tool for the rapidly expanding discipline of behavioural ecology in the 1970s; each catalysed the other. The first models were applied to animal contests, and early workers sought to improve their biological reality to compare predictions with observations. Furthermore, it was quickly realized that EGT provided a general evolutionary modelling method; not only was it swiftly applied to diverse phenotypic adaptations in evolutionary biology, it also attracted researchers from other disciplines such as mathematics and economics, for which game theory was first devised. Lastly, we pay attention to exchanges with population geneticists, considering tensions between the two modelling methods, as well as efforts to bring them closer. This article is part of the theme issue 'Half a century of evolutionary games: a synthesis of theory, application and future directions'.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	evolutionarily stable strategy, history of evolutionary game theory, John Maynard Smith
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	15 Mar 2024 10:32
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2024 14:32
DOI:	10.1098/rstb.2021.0493
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3179413