Game Theory
Consider this game: There's a pair of two players A and B, and a moderator M. Two players together can hunt a deer and gain, say 100 points. Or, each player individually can hunt a rabbit and get, say 20 points.
Moderator calls each player aside separately and asks: Do you want to cooperate with the other player to hunt the deer, or would you rather hunt a rabbit individually?
If each player separately agrees to cooperate with the other, they can avail the deer. But if A choses to cooperate and B choses the rabbit, A is left with nothing.
Interestingly, although each player wants to cooperate with the other and hunt the deer, the fear and distrust ("the other player may ditch me") makes both of them choose the rabbit.
This is called the "deer hunt game" and it provides an insight into Game Theory, a mathematical tool to analyse what happens when people or corporations cooperate, compete or interact with each other.
Remember John Nash, the genius mathematician portrayed in the movie "A Beautiful Mind"? His Nobel prize for Economics was primarily for his work in the area of game theory.
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