Regarding game theory: The examples you give are about game theory not describing actual behavior very well. But I assume we want here to use game theory as a theory of (multi-agent instrumental) rationality. So in our case it has to describe how people should interact, not necessarily how they do interact. Right?
Of course, if people do presumably interact rationality in certain cases, while game theory describes something else, then it is both normatively and descriptively inadequate. I’m not sure whether your examples are such cases. But there others. For example, both game theory and decision theory seem to recommend not to go voting in a democracy. In the former case because it seems to be a prisoner’s dilemma, in the latter because the expected utility of voting is very low. Voting being irrational seems highly counterintuitive, especially if you haven’t already been “brain washed” with those theories. They seem to miss some sort of Kantian “but if everyone did not vote” reasoning. That seems to me somewhat more excusable for decision theory, since it is not multi-agentic in the first place. But game t ’heory does indeed also seem more “tried and false” to me. Though some would bite the bullet and say voting is in fact irrational.
Regarding game theory: The examples you give are about game theory not describing actual behavior very well. But I assume we want here to use game theory as a theory of (multi-agent instrumental) rationality. So in our case it has to describe how people should interact, not necessarily how they do interact. Right?
Of course, if people do presumably interact rationality in certain cases, while game theory describes something else, then it is both normatively and descriptively inadequate. I’m not sure whether your examples are such cases. But there others. For example, both game theory and decision theory seem to recommend not to go voting in a democracy. In the former case because it seems to be a prisoner’s dilemma, in the latter because the expected utility of voting is very low. Voting being irrational seems highly counterintuitive, especially if you haven’t already been “brain washed” with those theories. They seem to miss some sort of Kantian “but if everyone did not vote” reasoning. That seems to me somewhat more excusable for decision theory, since it is not multi-agentic in the first place. But game t ’heory does indeed also seem more “tried and false” to me. Though some would bite the bullet and say voting is in fact irrational.