In this essay (http://www.gametheory.net/News/Items/027.html), Regis Ferriere discusses the application of game theory in social situations. More specifically, he goes in analyzing a report by Nowak and Sigmund, who studied evolutionary dynamics. The study by Nowak and Sigmund established a theory that predicts social cooperation based on the reputations of the subjects. First, it assumes that no direct reciprocity, meaning, no subject will return assistance when he/she is given some. There is also a personal scoring system in which each subject evaluates other subjects by observing their behavior. An image point is given to those that help; and an image point is withdrawn to those who don’t offer assistance.

The system also includes a “score cut” that each subject uses to determine if he/she should assist another subject. If the other subject is valued higher than the score cut, then he should assist him/her. If not, he/she should deflect this person. If one uses the cooperative strategy by setting the score cut to zero, everyone will receive assistance.

The system proposed by Nowak and Sigmund creates the dilemma that if a subject decides to deflect another person because that other person has a low score, he/she tarnishes his/her reputation as well. This leads to a dead-end for many people. This is interesting because in my opinion, the equilibrium would be for everyone to set the score cut to zero so that everyone will assist one another, as mentioned previously. And also, there will be no discrimination under this circumstance. However, the only setback is that people cannot judge the morality of others if their standards are that low.