Paradox of choice in social network games with product choiceraskin/slides-games-2016.pdf ·...

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science July 2016 (joint work with Nikita Nikitenkov, Moscow State University) Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} (Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science) Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice July 2016 1 / 32

Transcript of Paradox of choice in social network games with product choiceraskin/slides-games-2016.pdf ·...

Page 1: Paradox of choice in social network games with product choiceraskin/slides-games-2016.pdf · Braess’s paradox In a road network with travel time depending on congestion adding a

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Paradox of choice in social network games with productchoice

Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru}

Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science

July 2016

(joint work with Nikita Nikitenkov, Moscow State University)

Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} (Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science)Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice July 2016 1 / 32

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Paradox of choice:

Giving some players more options (or better payoffs) destroys the oldequilibrium and the system switches to a new equilibrium which is worsefor all players

For example, a set of individual improvements appears that leads into aworse equilibrium

It is easy to improve one player’s situation and make everyone else worseoff.

Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} (Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science)Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice July 2016 2 / 32

Page 3: Paradox of choice in social network games with product choiceraskin/slides-games-2016.pdf · Braess’s paradox In a road network with travel time depending on congestion adding a

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Braess’s paradox

In a road network with travel time depending on congestion adding a newroad can increase travel times for everyone.

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Braess’s paradoxIn a road network with travel time depending on congestion adding a newroad can increase travel times for everyone.Consider the travel times:

S T

A

B

x+150

x+15010x+1

10x+1

x is the number of cars (or thousands of cars) choosing this roadEven split, time is 6x + 151.

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Braess’s paradoxAdding a road:

S T

A

B

x+150

x+15010x+1

10x+1

2x+1

For x ≈ 10 the switch to the empty shortcut with the cost≈ 10x + 3(≈ 103 < 211 ≈ 6x + 151) becomes appealing

Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} (Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science)Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice July 2016 5 / 32

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Braess’s paradox

S T

A

B

x+150

x+15010x+1

10x+1

2x+1

Everyone switches to the shortcut, time is now 22x + 3(≈ 223), but if oneplayer switches back individually, time spent would be more than

10x + 151(≈ 251).

Michael Raskin, raskin@{cs.au.dk,mccme.ru} (Aarhus University, Department of Computer Science)Paradox of choice in social network games with product choice July 2016 6 / 32

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Social network games with product choice

1 3

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p1

p2 p3

p4

p5

Each vertex corresponds to a controlling playerEach player has a set of available products with different costsAvailable strategies are: pick a product, pay the cost, and get positivebonus equal to the sum of incoming edges from the players with the sameproduct; or refuse to choose a product and get zero payoff (no cost and nobonus).

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Social network games with product choice

Introduced by K. Apt and S. Simon

Existence of a Nash equilibrium is NP-complete [S. Simon]

Related to the paradox of choice via individual improvements

Individual improvement properties first studied by K. Apt, S. Simon andE. Markakis

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Individual improvement chains

Individual improvement for a strategy profile is a change of a singlestrategy that increases the payoff for the switching playerNash equilibrium means that no individual improvements are possibleAn individual improvement chain comes to a cycle or to an equilibrium (weassume that the player number is finite)

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Social network games with product choice: price changes

Raising the price of a product to a value larger than the sum of all the edgeweights in the graph is the same as forbidding the use of such a product

Similarly, allowing access to a product may be represented as lowering theprice

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Social network games with product choice: individual improvement chains

A vulnerable game: allowing one more strategy to one player (or loweringthe price of one product for one player) creates individual improvementchains and each of them leads to a strictly worse (for all players)equilibrium

A fragile game: allowing one more strategy to one player createsindividual improvement chains and each of them leads to a cycle

An inefficient game: raising a price of one product for one player createsindividual improvement chains and each of them leads to a betterequilibrium

An unsafe game: raising a price of one product for one player createsindividual improvement chains and each of them leads to a cycle

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Social network games with product choice: individual improvement chains

Apt, Simon, Markakis provided examples of fragile, unsafe and inefficientgamesAlso offered weaker notions of vulnerability (and provided examples)One of the weaker definitions: obligatory product selection, there is norefusal to use any product

Existence of vulnerable games is proved in the presented work

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Cascade

Cascade is a black-box construction for building examples of socialnetwork games with product choice

When the external conditions change, a cascade switches between twostates by following the only possible individual improvement chain.

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Cascade

There are three products; product costs are lower than any of the edgeweightsEach player has at most two products available

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Cascade

There is one incoming control edge, depending on the incentives providedby this edge cascade is in one of two possible equilibrium states

Changing the product choice at the origin of the incoming edge starts theonly possible chain of individual improvements leading to the otherequilibrium state

One of the states provides much higher payoffs due to special weak links(«emotional» links); these payoffs can also be applied to external playerswithout affecting their strategic choices

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Cascade — the two states

The good state: the incoming control edge incentivizes the choice of theproduct A, the outgoing control edge also incentivizes the choice ofproduct A

The bad state: the incoming control edge incentivizes anything else, theoutgoing control edge incentivizes the choice of product B

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Cascade — the interface detailsThe product prices are low and equal.

The cascade also uses medium-weight «inclination» links to ensure thatthere is a product that is better than refusing to choose the product.In the next few slides these inclinations are also provided to the playersoutside the cascade; in this case they are shown by emphasizing oneproduct in the list of options.

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A vulnerable game

A1

Cascade BC2

C

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A fragile game

A1

Cascade BC2

C

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An inefficient game

Cascade

BA1

B

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An unsafe game

BC1

CA2

Cascade BC3

C

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Edge changes

Instead of adding or removing products (or changing their prices) we cantry to fine-tune the payoffs by changing the weight of a single edge (lowenough edge weights are equivalent to edge removal)

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Edge changes

The simplest example is universal reduction of payoff after an individualimprovements chain started by reducing the weight of a single edge

Cascade

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Edge changes

You can eitherincrease edge weightordecrease edge weight

and make the only individual improvement chain lead to:universally better equilibriumuniversally worse equilibriumindividual improvement cycle

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Cascade structureThree productsEach player has at most two products availableProduct costs are very low but positiveThree types of edges

Two types of players: «humans» and «spirits», spirits have no free willCascade is built out of three very similar ranks

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Cascade — the construction ideaThe main idea is having three types of edges:

Emotional edges: very low weight, very numerous, never affectstrategical choiceControl edges: very high weight, often reward using products that arenot availableInclination edges: high weight, but not as high as control edges,intended to reward using some product so that refusal strategy is notused

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Cascade — switching the state

For every player incoming emotional links switch between equal incentivesfor both available products and incentive for an unavailable product; thedifference between incentives for two available products is never higherthan one emotional link weight

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Cascade structureSpirits

A-stimulus B-stimulus C-stimulus

A A B B C C

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Cascade structureRanks of humans

A-rank

AB

A C

A B

A C

...A B

A C

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Cascade structureCascade composition

Spirits provide inclinations

Main input controls a C-rank, which controls an A-rank, which controls aB-rank

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Possible next step

Is there a less rigid/more believable construction?

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Thanks for your attention!

Questions?

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