Perception and Information in Strategic Thinking

Abstract

After a theoretical discussion of the relationship of information and perception to strategic thinking, an experiment is described where these factors are investigated in a series of simple strategic situations.

While rarely conclusive, the results are suggestive on several points. The need to gain information about the other's choices seems to be a clear determinant of a subject's behaviour. Perceptions that the players have of themselves and of each other do relate to the behaviour of each, as measured by the relative proportions of one of two possible responses over the other. However, the context in which this behaviour takes place, even within the confines of the experimental design, seems to be an even greater influence on perceptions. This finding would not have come out if only one kind of game had been played.

The method involved several ways of measuring the subjective elements in strategic thinking, which seem to be successful in themselves. While the results are rather 'open ended', this was the intention of the experiment, leaving a number of more specific questions ready with a way both of asking and of attempting to answer them.