Life Is Not a Game

Ever heard of the prisoner’s dillema? How a double bind might cause us to be our own worst enemies? Bad enough when others use it to maniplulate our thinking and reactions, better not to do it to ourselves…

Research and experience both show how easily people are primed into selective hearing and narrow framing. Game theory illuminates how—and what we may be able to do about it.

Join Professor Adi Ayal at Clio's for a two part conversation to learn how biases color our understanding of the world and how we get cornered into a defensiveness that limits our perspective. Using insights from psychology and behavioral game theory, we will explore real life scenarios where we can do better. We’ll play games, discuss problematic behaviors, and examine personal choices that might have been constrained by others framing the situation to their advantage.

Applications will include firms vs. consumers, avoidable tensions in personal relationships, short vs. long term thinking, and the way political generalizations induce hate rather than coordinative solutions.

Adi Ayal holds dual PhDs in Economics from UC Berkeley (2007) and Law from Bar Ilan University (2002). He currently serves as a Professor of Law and Economics at Bar Ilan University, specializing in corporate and competition law, and applying game theory to legal and business contexts. Professor Ayal has held visiting positions at renowned institutions including the London School of Economics, University of Chicago, Monash University, and UC Berkeley. He is the author of Fairness in Antitrust: Protecting the Strong from the Weak (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2014), a seminal work in the field.

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