Cipolla' s game: playing under the laws of human stupidity

TL;DR

This paper introduces an evolutionary game model inspired by Cipolla's laws of human stupidity, analyzing how stupid players impact societal wealth through spatial dynamics and imitation strategies.

Contribution

It extends classical game theory by including a 'stupid' strategy and explores its effects on population dynamics beyond rational assumptions.

Findings

Stupid players significantly reduce overall population wealth.

Spatial structure influences the spread of stupidity.

Imitation dynamics amplify the impact of stupid strategies.

Abstract

In this work we present an evolutionary game inspired by the work of Carlo Cipolla entitled The basic laws of human stupidity. The game expands the classical scheme of two archetypical strategies, collaborators and defectors, by including two additional strategies. One of these strategies is associated to a stupid player that according to Cipolla is the most dangerous one as it undermines the global wealth of the population. By considering a spatial evolutionary game and imitation dynamics that go beyond the paradigm of a rational player we explore the impact of Cipolla' s ideas and analyze the extent of the damage that the stupid players inflict on the population