Evolution and Game Theory

Game theory can be of considerable use to evolutionary biologists, especially behaviorists. Originally developed as a tool to predict rational human economic behavior, it has been successfully applied to many evolutionary problems. Game theory is useful in understanding situations where the fitness consequences of an individual's behavior depends in part on the types and frequencies of behaviors exhibited by other animals in the population. This site provides an introduction to evolutionary game theory. It is aimed primarily at undergraduates with a serious interest in animal behavior and evolution. I have tried to make the material accessible to any student with a good facility in algebra. Portions of the site dealing with the "war of attrition" do contain some calculus but I have taken care to explain the calculations in detail for students who have not yet studied calculus. By John Maynard Smith.