Swarm Intelligence

The “Battle of the Sexes” is another famous coordination game, in

which a husband and wife try to work out complementary roles (see Fig-

ure 5.11). For instance, it may be that both of them strongly prefer to

play the piano while the other sings, but less strongly prefer to hear the

partner play the piano rather than sing. Least desirable of all is for them

both to sing, though both playing the piano is pretty bad, too.

In the Battle of the Sexes, as in the other games, the objective is for

the players to coordinate their choices. Here, the lowest payoffs occur

where both participants do the same thing; the trick when this game is it-

erated is to