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Games superheroes play: Teaching game theory with comic book favorites

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  • Brian O'Roark
  • William Grant

Abstract

The valuable insights of game theory sometimes remain out of reach for students who are overwhelmed by the subject's complexity. Comic book applications of game theory, with superheroes as players, can facilitate enthusiasm and classroom interaction to enhance the learning of game theory. Drawing from content in superhero movies and books, the authors construct games to illustrate pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, Bayes-Nash equilibrium, mixed strategies, sub-game perfection, and perfect Bayesian equilibrium. To help instructors build students' skills in finding and interpreting game solutions, they translate comic book scenarios into specific game forms; however, not all scenarios are obvious so they suggest instructors help students develop their own game-theoretic judgments to determine what game forms, payoffs, and solution concepts might be appropriate for understanding a situation.

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  • Brian O'Roark & William Grant, 2018. "Games superheroes play: Teaching game theory with comic book favorites," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 180-193, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jeduce:v:49:y:2018:i:2:p:180-193
    DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2018.1438861
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    Cited by:

    1. Wayne Geerling & G. Dirk Mateer, 2021. "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Economics!," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 5(3), pages 131-141, March.
    2. Wayne Geerling & Kristofer Nagy & Elaine Rhee & Nicola Thomas & Jadrian Wooten, 2023. "Using Squid Game to Teach Game Theory," Journal of Economics Teaching, Journal of Economics Teaching, vol. 8(1), pages 47-63, January.
    3. Wayne Geerling & G. Dirk Mateer & Brian O’Roark, 2020. "Music Then and Now: Using Technology to Build a Lyric Animation Module," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 65(2), pages 264-276, October.
    4. Iacopo Grassi & Gaetano Polichetti, 2024. "Cooking up Game Theory: A Practical Application in a Multi-Stage Cooking Competition," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(1), pages 273-279.

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